Former Financial Ombudsman Service worker Angus Trappitt jailed for $151,000 rorts

A Financial Ombudsman Service worker ignited multistate police operations after mounting a terror campaign against himself.

Angus Trappitt lied to police about being slashed with a knife after concocting a bogus terror campaign against himself.

A fraudster given 24-hour security protection and prime hotel digs after cooking up a fake terror campaign against himself has been jailed.

Angus Trappitt, 35, was sentenced in the County Court on Thursday to a 17-month jail term after he was found guilty of perjury and obtain financial advantage by deception charges.

Trappitt, a former Financial Ombudsman Service employee, guzzled $151,970 in personal security and legal costs and hotel, travel, holiday and food bills while on his “bizarre” escapade between May 8 and July 11, 2018.

The grifter also drained valuable police resources in two states.

Trappitt, who earned $28,000 during his offending, began his bogus racket with threatening emails which then ended in fake attacks masked by self-inflicted wounds.

Trappitt, a former case manager, received non-threatening angry emails from a former West Australian-based client in early-2018.

Trappitt commenced his fake emails not long later on May 7.

“As I said Angus your f**king dead you just don’t know it yet your report is shit you f**king piece of shit stupid c***,” Trappitt wrote.

“I am your god and I will devour you I will reveal your injustice corrupt ways

watch out.”

Trappitt then sent more emails.

“You will die angus” and “I will reveal you I will be your undoing (sic) I am your

master … you will be ruined”.

The FOS engaged a security company which had emails diverted to its officers and helped move Trappitt and his partner into various hotels.

Security personnel also checked Trappitt’s South Yarra apartment to “minimise” risk.

Advice included the removal of BBQ gas bottles from the balcony.

Trappitt upped his email campaign.

“You will be brought down off your perch and into a grave … you will die you f**king piece of s**t …,” he wrote

“If you think you are safe in melbourne angus u are not … Angus i found you c*** south yarra …

The FSO, concerned the South Yarra address wasn’t “common knowledge”, booked Trappitt and his partner into The Blackman hotel St Kilda.

The FSO also arranged security guards to shadow Trappitt to-and-from work and guard his accommodation.

Security guards were also deployed to watch the FOS building to “identify” anyone “loitering” outside.

West Australian police investigated and interviewed Trappitt’s alleged menace but found no evidence.

Victoria Police launched ‘Operation STEWARDS-2018’ to manage the “Victorian side of the investigation”.

Investigators also looked into people with “even the most tenuous links” to Trappitt’s alleged aggressor.

Police and the security company also took Trappitt to “specific public places” in the hope of “smoking out” potential assailants.

Trappitt, who had been shifted to the Hampton Apartments Port Melbourne, sent himself another email.

“Port Melbourne. Found you again,” he wrote.

Trappitt asked to be shifted back to The Blackman because he “didn’t like” the Port Melbourne accommodation but was refused.

Trappitt later sent another email which exposed the address of the Port Melbourne apartments.

“How is nott (sic) street Angus?,” the email stated.

“As soon as I’m finished here I’m gonna take a little trip east you are a dead man walking.”

Trappitt and his partner were later rotated between the Novotel St Kilda and another hotel.

Police requested Trappitt “undergo a series of movements” in “an attempt to identify suspects”.

Trappitt sent an email which disclosed his new location and referred to his partner by name.

The FOS planned to shift Trappitt to Tasmania because it was “close” and “inexpensive”.

Trappitt, “dissatisfied” with the choice, asked to go to Darwin or “somewhere warmer”.

Trappitt and his partner were shifted to Airlie Beach Queensland where they stayed for several days partly accompanied by a security operative.

The FOS told Trappitt it would no longer house him in hotels after he returned home from Queensland on July 4.

The next day the FOS received a email which said Trappitt should check his BBQ.

Trappitt found a piece of paper under the BBQ lid which said: “YOU ARE GOING TO F**KING DIE”.

Later, Trappitt planted another note which read: “I AM GOING TO RAPE YOU AND INFECT YOU WITH AIDS YOU WILL F**KING DIE”.

Trappitt never alerted security about the note until after he had handled it despite a guard being stationed at his apartment.

Later that day, Trappitt told police he heard a “loud bang” and spotted a person climbing over the courtyard fence.

The guard on duty said he was on scene within 30 seconds but didn’t see anybody.

Days later, Trappitt claimed he was in Docklands when someone told him to go to the Orrong Hotel Armadale.

Trappitt, who claimed the person knew where his partner was and what she was wearing, said he caught a cab to the hotel where he was confronted by two “Middle Eastern” men.

Trappitt said a man pulled a knife while the other had a semiautomatic handgun stuffed in his pants.

“You have to withdraw the Police complaints and we’re going to teach you a lesson, if you yell we’re going to stab you,” Trappitt claimed a bogus thug said.

Trappitt said the thug thrust the knife into his shoulder then slashed his forehead and cheek.

Trappitt also claimed one of the thugs possessed a photo of his partner with a target drawn over her head.

Police found superficial wounds but no blood on Trappitt’s clothing.

A forensic physician opined Trappitt’s injuries appeared to be “self-inflicted”.

Trappitt’s jig was up when police raided his Armadale home on July 20.

The court heard Trappitt never received another threat after his arrest.

The defence submitted Trappitt was a FOS “problem child”.

Judge Richard Maidment said Trappitt’s offending was a “tremendous waste of police resources”.

“It was a bizarre series of allegations …,” Judge Maidment said.

“I have no choice but to punish you adequately for the offending.”

Trappitt, formerly of Lawson in the ACT, was also handed a three-year community correction order.

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