Fraud builder Najy Rayes pleads guilty in County Court over $108k landscaping scam
A fake builder from Cranbourne pocketed more than $108,000 in a fraudulent renovation and landscaping scheme using pressure tactics and verbal abuse, calling one woman a “dirty rat”.
South East
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A fake builder from Melbourne’s southeast used pressure tactics and false promises to milk more than $108,000 from innocent victims, even calling one woman a “dirty rat”.
Cranbourne man Najy Rayes, 46, pleaded guilty in the County Court on February 27 to one charge of wrongly accepting payment, after swindling $108,568.75 from seven victims.
Rayes — the sole director of Melbourne Landscape Design — offered services including paving, driveways, painting, demolition, building steps fences and gates, while not being a registered builder under the Victorian Building Authority.
The court heard the authority reported Rayes to Consumer Affairs twice in 2023, confirming he was not and had never been a registered builder.
Over an 18-month period between March 2021 and December 2023, Rayes took thousands of dollars from victims for unfinished and defective work, much of which required rectification.
In brazen offending, Rayes was “volatile” and “aggressive” towards customers.
The court heard in one incident a victim said he was “shouting and flaring his volatile temper” towards her.
The woman had been dealing with Rayes alone and suspected he was being “discriminatory towards women” and had made “racist remarks”.
She attempted to enlist the help of a male friend, however Rayes refused to speak with him, later verbally abusing her, saying “don’t run around being a rat, a dirty rat of Glen Iris”.
Rayes carried out his fraudulent scheme by first fooling victims through quotes for jobs, adding on extra — often unnecessary — work, beginning the job and leaving gardens undone or half demolished, then later ghosting the homeowners when they tried to contact him.
One victim said he had become “pushy” and “made her feel like she had to agree” after removing her fence without consent.
Jilted customers have not been reimbursed for the incomplete work.
Consumer Affairs contacted Rayes in June 2023 and invited him for an interview, which he later refused.
In court on Thursday, Rayes’ lawyer Celine Khoury said he was “remorseful”.
“He is very open about the fact he does accept responsibility,” she said.
“It just snowballed and if he’d spoken to Consumer Affairs when they’d reached out to him, this could have been avoided.”
However, Judge Trevor Wraight said there was “no evidence” he was remorseful, referring to his “enormous amount of priors for deception”.
“He’s lucky he wasn’t charged with financial advantage by deception – with these priors, he’d be facing more than a fine,” he said.
“He says he’s remorseful but hasn’t paid a cent back to the victims and there’s no evidence he’s really got any intention of doing that.”
The court heard Rayes was facing a maximum $2.2m fine.
The matter was adjourned to March 6 for sentencing.
