Melbourne’s disgraced real estate agents: Kristiana Karakostas, Craig McIntosh
A Box Hill South creep who posed as a Chinese gangster to blackmail a Monash University student into sex is just one of many Melbourne real estate agents who have disgraced themselves.
East
Don't miss out on the headlines from East . Followed categories will be added to My News.
From a mother who pocketed tenants’ bond and rent payments to another who posed as a Chinese gangster to blackmail and threaten a young Monash University student, these are Melbourne’s most disgraced real estate agents.
KRISTIANA KARAKOSTAS
The agent, who moonlighted as a drug dealer, was dumped by the REIV and stripped of an award after she pleaded guilty to peddling cocaine on Craigslist.
The 27-year-old was sentenced in the County Court on June 12 to a three-year community correction order after pleading guilty to trafficking cocaine.
Karakostas and former The Bachelor contestant Georgia Tripos were busted in March 2017 following a month-long covert police operation.
Karakostas sold an undercover cop a bag of cocaine for $350 at a carpark behind a Mount Waverley Shell service station on February 22.
Karakostas was arrested at her Mt Waverley office on March 15.
The court heard Karakostas was “severely addicted to cocaine”.
Karakostas had her REIV membership stripped after her guilty plea was revealed in June.
Tripos, who pleaded guilty to trafficking cocaine, will contest other charges at a trial in November.
CRAIG MCINTOSH
A bogus real estate agent stole big cash deposits for properties that weren’t for sale so he could buy Tattslotto tickets, a court has heard.
Craig McIntosh stole more than $200,000 from 12 victims through shonky property deals between July, 2016 and August, 2017.
The dodgy agent’s victims were in the market to purchase property in the city and Southbank.
McIntosh had been an authorised real estate agent’s representative but this was stripped in February 2017.
Consumer Affairs Victoria issued a notice in 2017 which warned potential customers not to do business with McIntosh.
Police arrested McIntosh at his high-rise Russell St suite in February, 2018.
McIntosh, 51, was sentenced in the County Court on December 13 2019 to a minimum one year in prison after pleading guilty to multiple charges of theft and obtaining property by deception.
RUIBO ‘BOB’ ZHANG
The creep estate agent who posed as a Chinese gangster to blackmail and threaten a young Monash University student into sex was sentenced to jail.
Ruibo “Bob” Zhang, 30, was sentenced in the County Court on November 27, 2019 to a minimum 20 months after pleading guilty to two counts of procuring sexual act by fraud, blackmail and making a threat to kill
Zhang was an agent for AlexKarbon Real Estate when he tormented the Chinese woman, aged in her early 20s, the County Court heard.
Zhang, from Box Hill South, offered the woman work as a “high-end” escort earning up to $10,000 a week.
Zhang was jailed for a maximum two years and six months.
GEOFF HORNE
The shonky Berwick real estate agent concocted a $175,000 property sale rort to save his failing business, a court heard.
Geoff Horne, 55, was sentenced in the County Court on June 29 to nine months’ jail after pleading guilty to two rolled-up theft charges.
Horne was a licenced real estate agent for his company Geoff Horne Real Estate Pty Ltd when he rorted $175,000 from two clients.
Horne sold his clients’ properties then pocketed the deposit money for himself via 28 separate withdrawals.
KAMAL SEHGAL
The dodgy real estate agent stole $280,000 via a bogus multimillion-dollar Brighton property deal.
Kamal Sehgal, 46, pleaded guilty in the County Court on August 31 to fraud charges including obtaining a financial advantage by deception.
Sehgal was managing director and sole agent of Raine & Horne Brighton when he committed his skulduggery in March last year. Raine & Horne terminated Sehgal’s franchise agreement.
DEAN JOHNSON
An agent operating in Melbourne’s west has had his real estate licence cancelled over “seriously deficient” conduct, including underquoting.
The Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal banned Dean Anthony Johnson in 2019 from holding a licence for two years, after finding he had breached the Estate Agents Act 35 times from November 2014 to February 2016, while he was director of Property Express Pty Ltd.
Senior VCAT member Anna Dea said in her order that the penalty would “send a message” to other agents that “knowledge of and compliance with the law is an absolute requirement”.
Mr Johnson told the tribunal he intended to become better educated and to never again be the director of a real estate business, so he could continue his 36-year agent career with “100 per cent compliance”.
TANYA SIMOVSKA
The greedy real estate property manager who fleeced her clients of more than $136,000 was jailed for her crimes.
Tanya Simovska, 37, pleaded guilty in April 2019 to a raft of theft and deception charges while working at PRD Jens Gaunt Real Estate and Hunter French Real Estate.
The County Court heard the Sunshine mother of two pocketed tenants’ bond and rent payments made to her in cash, totalling $136,827 over 15 months during her employment at the two agencies in 2010 and 2015.
Simovska was sentenced to 18 months’ jail and must serve nine months before she is eligible for parole.
She was also fined $750 for failing to appear at an earlier court date.
MORE NEWS: MELBOURNE’S MOST DISGRACED TEACHERS