Gambler Mark Oliver fronts court for duping clients

A dodgy property manager used his friends’ bank accounts to channel $320k he stole from tenants, tradies and landlords after racking up a massive gambling debt.

Disgraced property manager Mark Oliver has been sent to jail for stealing more than $320,000 from his employer’s clients over 15 months.

A disgraced property manager who roped in his friends to swindle more than $320,000 from his employer’s clients to fund his gambling addiction has been jailed.

Mark Oliver, 50, of Port Melbourne, issued false and inflated invoices issued to tenants, tradies and landlords while working as a senior property manager at Morley Real Estate and deposited payments into the bank accounts of two friends.

He obtained $320,801 through 14 fraudulent transactions between August 2018 and October 2019 and after suffering mental health issues and being involved in a car collision in November 2019, he failed to show up to work and sent his boss a text saying he’d had “enough”.

Oliver fronted the County Court on Thursday when he was sentenced to nine months’ jail and a five-year community corrections order.

Judge Samantha Marks said Oliver’s boss Matthew Morley discovered a litany of paperwork spread across the desk that revealed the massive con.

Mark Oliver issued false and inflated invoices issued to tenants, tradies and landlords to obtain more than $320,000.

After a year of internal investigations, Mr Morley reported the scam to police in October 2020.

Oliver was arrested in March 2022 and told police he couldn’t remember the offending as he

suffered a mental breakdown, took Xanax and consumed alcohol daily.

“You were a senior employee who held positions of power and authority and used that position to develop trust with tradies. The amount involved is significant,” Judge Marks said.

She said despite Morley Real Estate having to repay the victims and being reimbursed by its insurance company, his former employer has had to investigate the fraud which took up a lot of time.

The court heard that Oliver had a severe gambling problem — which had seen him put almost $1m into online betting accounts — had left him with a huge debt which led to his orchestrated deception.