Anselmo Dragone fronts court for fleecing plant hire companies
A dodgy site foreman tricked two companies into paying him $343k for the hire of two excavators for a property development that he never delivered.
South East
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A crooked Melbourne foreman who fraudulently charged two businesses $343,000 for the hire of excavators has told a court his mentally stressed wife would be homeless if he went to jail.
Anselmo Dragone is awaiting sentence on two charges of obtaining a financial advantage by deception after appearing for a plea hearing in the County Court on Tuesday.
The 61-year-old, of Mornington, tricked Southern Plant Hire and Eastern Plant Hire into paying him $343,055 between May and October 2017 for the hire of two excavators that were never provided.
Prosecutor Ben Kerlin told the court that Symon Bros Constructions of Thomastown employed Dragone in November 2016 as the project manager and site foreman for a residential development in Officer.
As part of the development, the company regularly hired excavators from Southern Plant Hire and Eastern Plant Hire to undertake works for various construction stages of the development.
Southern Plant Hire and Eastern Plant Hire leased equipment from elsewhere and subcontracted them to Symon Bros Constructions.
In 2017, Dragone approached the plant hire companies and provided them with details of two third party companies that he said would provide excavators for the property development site.
He did not disclose his connection to the third party companies.
Between May and October 2017, one of the third party company’s invoiced Eastern Plant Hire for two excavators that were never provided.
Southern Plant Hire made 23 deposits totalling $235,481 into Anselmo’s bank account and a further $107,566 after the other third party submitted an invoice for the excavators.
Mr Kerlin said in October 2017, Symon Bros Constructions came to the realisation that the fictitious excavators were working long hours, even in inclement weather and on weekends. The company contacted police after conducting an investigation that revealed no excavators were hired.
Defence lawyer Chris Terry said a prison sentence would be hard on Dragone who was not in the best of health as well as on the latter’s 57-year-old wife who suffered from mental health issues.
Dragone took to the witness stand and said his wife relied on him for income and she would not be able to pay rent if he went to jail.
He’ll be sentenced on November 1.
