Sedat Ceylan: ATO fraudster cons Hallam business owner
A Pascoe Vale man who once fled overseas while awaiting trial for scamming the ATO out of more than $2.6m has hoodwinked a Melbourne small business owner. Gallingly, he asked his victim to “have a heart” and help him get off the charges.
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A notorious fraudster jailed after he ripped off the ATO to the tune of more than $2.6 million is back at it again, this time conning a Hallam business owner.
Sedat Ceylan, 51, faced the County Court this month where he pleaded guilty to charges including obtain financial advantage by deception, obtain property by deception, and attempting to pervert the course of justice.
The court heard Ceylan, of Pascoe Vale, was jailed in 2008 after he pleaded guilty to scamming the tax office of $2.64 million in dodgy tax refunds.
He fled the country in 2001 to reside in his native Turkey before he could be brought to trial, County Court Judge Damian Murphy told the court, but he later returned in 2007 to face the music.
Ceylan was jailed for five years, but just a year after his release in 2013, Judge Murphy told the court this month Ceylan reverted back to his old ways and engaged in his latest offending.
These saw him con a family associate, Mehmet Yaydemir, who ran an excavating business from his Hallam home, into lending him $286,000 to buy a new Mercedes, which he said he planned to sell at a profit.
The car was never purchased and Ceylan pocketed the cash.
In another fraud he applied for a bank loan with the ANZ to buy another car using a false name and listing Mr Yaydemir as the guarantor.
The loan totalled $74,235.36, again no car was purchased, and the money was never recovered, the court heard.
Judge Murphy said both frauds totalled more than $350,000.
Mr Yaydemir, who took out a loan from the Commonwealth Bank to provide Ceylan cash for the first loan, was left fielding calls from debt collectors and lost part of his assets which were listed as securities by the bank.
Ceylan’s offending only came to light when Mr Yaydemir, saddled with more than $700,000 worth of debt and overdue payments as a result of Ceylan’s deceit, reported the matter to police.
But while Ceylan cooled his heels in jail following his arrest in 2018 over the matters, Judge Murphy told the court he continued to offend.
Ceylan phoned Mr Yaydemir from behind bars to try to convince him to change his statement.
He even asked his victim to “have a heart” for the position he’d put him in behind bars, the court heard.
“I have been inside for six months. Have a heart, brother. There are two conditions. Either you will come to court and say it was a commercial agreement or you will not attend court at all,” Ceylan said according to court documents.
“My being in prison won’t bring the money back to you.”
Judge Murphy told the court frauds committed against the finance sector “strike at the integrity of the economic system”.
He also said Ceylan’s attempt to pervert the course of justice was in line with much of his previous offending, which included dishonesty offences dating back to 1993.
Ceylan’s excuses for his offences — that his family was under financial stress and he’d been having issues with gambling — did not warrant leniency by the court.
“You clearly have not learned your lesson in the past, given your prior record of the dishonesty offences,” Judge Murphy said.
Ceylan was sentenced to five years’ and three months’ jail.
He must serve at least three years and four months before becoming eligible for parole.
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