Young mum Kirsty Wallace endures year of torment at hands of dodgy agent Kamal Sehgal
A young mum endured a 12-month nightmare in an “absolutely disgusting” Doreen rental at the hands of a crooked landlord she had no idea was a bogus estate agent doing dodgy deals on the other side of town.
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A Mill Park mum says her family endured a nightmare 12 months while renting a property owned by dodgy real estate agent Kamal Sehgal.
Kirsty Wallace, her partner Trevor, and their three children began leasing a home in Doreen owned by Sehgal in January 2019.
Ms Wallace said when they moved in the house was “absolutely disgusting”, with urine on toilet seats and scum in the shower.
She said the house’s doorbell and CCTV cameras didn’t work, there was a leak in the roof, and dangerous back steps that were coming away from the wall, that posed a big risk to her when she fell pregnant with daughter Star, who is now nine months old.
“I was heavily pregnant and if these stairs came out from under me it was going to hurt,” she said.
But Ms Wallace said despite their repeated requests, Sehgal did not make any repairs and continued to charge them full rent.
She said she had solicitors knocking on her door frequently looking for Sehgal and a builder would not come and make any repairs to the property as he was still owed money from him.
Ms Wallace said after the family moved out of the house in March this year Sehgal announced he was taking them to VCAT asking them to pay for work he had since completed to the house, including painting the walls, and paying for an electrical cord, which Ms Wallace said she accidentally taken.
Ms Wallace said they had since lodged a counter claim, asking they be refunded some of their rent.
“He was renting the property at full price for all these added extras, none of which we had,” he said.
She said Sehgal had also not given them 14 days to clean or fix any issues before applying to VCAT.
She also said when the family went back to collect belongings soon after vacating the house — which they let Sehgal know about and he had replied via text and said was OK — he had locked the gate, so they couldn’t get to their pet birds and personal documents.
Ms Wallace said she had to ring the police and the RSPCA before he allowed them in.
She said the experience of renting Sehgal’s property had put enormous stress on her family.
“He is hurting too many innocent hardworking people and it’s not right,” Ms Wallace said.
She didn’t know it at the time but Sehgal had stolen $280,000 via a bogus multimillion-dollar Brighton property deal.
Sehgal, 46, pleaded guilty in the County Court this month 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, while Ms Wallace was his tenant.
The fraudster approached the owner of a vacant land on North Rd, Brighton and offered to sell it for her but she told him she wasn’t interested.
Sehgal badgered the woman until she agreed to sell the vacant lot and the neighbouring property as a ludicrous $12 million package deal, just to “get rid” of him.
However, Sehgal, whose Bay St franchise was haemorrhaging cash, agreed to the woman’s outrageous terms.
Sehgal then ensnared George Bakoulas after the diamond dealer came looking for property to develop in Brighton.
Sehgal drove Mr Bakoulas to the North Rd lot, then convinced his victim he could pick up the land for $2.8 million.
Sehgal took a $280,000 deposit, telling his victim, “trust me, I will get it done for you”.
In reality, there was no deal and the property owner had no idea who Mr Bakoulas was nor did she know he had given Sehgal a deposit, the court heard.
The deposit was immediately transferred into accounts controlled by Sehgal.
Mr Bakoulas cancelled the deal and asked for his deposit back, but Sehgal, dodged questions and made excuses, giving Mr Bakoulas two cheques which bounced.
Sehgal also forged a contract of sale to string his victim along.
Mr Bakoulas reported Sehgal to police who arrested and charged the scammer in May last year.
Sehgal’s real estate licence and his KS & CO Pty Ltd business licence were cancelled days later.
Consumer Affairs Victoria compensated Mr Bakoulas the full $280,000 via the Victorian Property Fund.
Sehgal, via his lawyer, blamed his thievery on Raine & Horne franchise costs — including office rent and fit out expenses — and “bad luck”.
Sehgal’s lawyer said none of the stolen cash was spent on “luxury goods or an unearned luxurious lifestyle”.
“The offending was an improper attempt to keep the business supporting him, his
family and his staff afloat when it fell into a cash flow crisis,” defence counsel Neville Rudston said.
Raine & Horne managing director Randolph Clements disputed this submission.
“I acted swiftly, decisively and relentlessly to stamp out this individual as there is no place in the real estate profession and certainly no place for people such as this in our network,” Mr Clements said.
“Mr Sehgal joined our network in June 2018 after an extensive background check as per our standard procedures.
“He was given a six-month franchise fee holiday.
“We also paid for all Mr Sehgal’s printing and made a contribution of $6000 to his office signage.
“While Mr Sehgal paid some marketing contributions from March – December 2018, at no stage did he ever pay us any franchise fees so for him to suggest to you through his legal advisers that our fees contributed to his actions is incorrect.
“On termination, he was advised that all his outstanding franchise fees for the year were forgiven on the basis that he would take down his sign and leave the network immediately. “Moreover, our franchise fees are more than competitive relative to other networks, and our other principals are surviving without committing major frauds.”
Sehgal, who is back living at his Doreen property, will be sentenced on Thursday.
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