Prolific alleged shady tradie Toai Pham arrested in Melbourne

A notorious tradie who has allegedly ripped Geelong residents off thousands by taking deposits for work has been arrested and released pending summons.

Janice Demko claims she was allegedly scammed out of $8,000 by Toai Pham last year when he took her deposit but didn't fix her fence. Picture: Alan Barber

A notorious tradie who allegedly ripped off Geelong residents thousands of dollars by taking deposits for work has been arrested and released pending summons.

Last year it was reported that 14 people claim mysterious tradie Toai Pham had been targeting people via Australian-based app Airtasker and social media, refusing to do work after taking deposits.

Bell Park woman Janice Demko says she is one of Mr Pham’s victims, and received an email this week from a Maribynong Crime Investigation Unit detective, seen by the Geelong Advertiser, that confirms he was arrested in April and interviewed in relation to her matter and several other alleged frauds.

A Victoria Police spokesman confirmed Mr Pham had been released pending further investigation, no charges have been laid.

“Detectives arrested a man following a series of alleged frauds from March 2022 to December 2024,” he said.

Mr Toai Pham

“It is alleged that a man engaged in fraudulent behaviour by way of accepting deposits for construction and renovation works before ceasing all forms of communication with clients.

“Investigators allege that these incidents took place throughout the greater Geelong area and metropolitan Melbourne.”

Police confirmed they executed a search warrant at the 42-year-old’s Sunshine address on April 28.

“The investigation remains ongoing,” he said.

Ms Demko claims she was out of pocket $8,000 after engaging Mr Pham, who went by the name Tom, to fix the front fence of her Bell Park home.

Janice Demko is a member of a Facebook group chat of people who claim to be victims of Mr Pham. Picture: Alan Barber

She said she was able to get her money back after going through the building ombudsman.

Ms Demko said local police reached out to her as part of their investigation after finding her details while checking out Mr Pham’s banking history.

“I was probably the same as everyone else,” Ms Demko said.

“I was just looking for a tradesman, I popped in a Geelong community group and he popped up that way.

“He gave me a quote, pretty much like everybody else, he was the quickest to come back with a quote, and once he got the deposit he went to ground.”

While Mr Pham told Ms Demko his name was Tom, in the past he has gone by Dax, Tommy and Michael.

Ms Demko is a member of the “Pham Scam” Facebook group chat which is populated by people claiming to have been ripped off by Mr Pham.

The Geelong Advertiser revealed a number of their stories in late 2023.

Four people who were contacted from the group lost about $25,000 between them.

Mr Pham had his account on Airtasker restricted in 2020, the company confirmed in late 2023.

Multiple attempts were made to contact Mr Pham.

Detectives believe that there may be further victims who have not spoken to police.

Anyone with information that could assist police is urged to contact Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000 or submit a confidential report online at www.crimestoppersvic.com.au

[e-mail]

Originally published as Prolific alleged shady tradie Toai Pham arrested in Melbourne