Former LJ Hooker agent pleads guilty to 163 charges
A FORMER LJ Hooker agent accused of stealing millions of dollars from clients at six real estate offices in Melbourne’s eastern suburbs has pleaded guilty in court to 163 charges.
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A FORMER LJ Hooker agent accused, with his wife, of stealing millions of dollars of clients’ money has pleaded guilty to 163 charges.
Tri Duc Ngo, who also goes by Joseph Ngo, entered the plea at the Melbourne Magistrates’ Court today.
Andrea Mapp, for Consumer Affairs Victoria, told the court a further 143 charges that had previously been laid against Mr Ngo had been struck out.
A CAV spokesman said Mr Ngo’s remaining charges included 125 counts of “wrongful conversion and false accounts”, which carried a maximum penalty per offence of “a term of imprisonment of not more than 10 years” or a $77,730 fine under the Estate Agents Act 1980.
He also pleaded guilty to seven charges related to breaching a section of the act restricting agents on purchasing property, and 31 charges for breaching a section requiring agents to “keep accounts of trust money received”.
The former has a maximum punishment per offence of two years’ jail or a $37,310 fine, or both, and the latter, a fine of “not more than $3886.50”.
His wife Truc Thanh Le Nguyen — also known as Judy Thanh Truc and Judy Nguyen — faces 331 charges related to alleged breaches of four sections of the Estate Agents Act.
The couple’s lawyer, Erol Cinar, had previously told the court Ms Nguyen intended to plead not guilty.
The pair is accused of plundering trust accounts and stealing house deposits of clients of six LJ Hooker offices in Melbourne’s east — of which Ms Nguyen was the director and her husband, an employee — in 2015-16.
Ms Mapp had previously told the court about $4 million had gone missing, but some had been paid back so the total loss was $2.1 million.
Both are due to return to court separately in November — Ms Nguyen for a committal hearing on November 1, at which three witnesses are due to be cross examined, and Mr Ngo at the County Court on November 8.
The court heard that Mr Ngo, of Rowville, would be on bail until then.
He was ordered to surrender his passport and any other valid travel documents, and banned from applying for another one.
Mr Cinar told the court his client did not have a passport.
Mr Ngo’s case had repeatedly been adjourned since kicking off in February, firstly due to CAV bringing more charges against him and then by Mr Cinar requesting more time to analyse the “voluminous material” compiled against his clients.
CAV suspended Ms Nguyen’s real estate license in May after she was employed by a new Springvale agency Oz Capital Real Estate.
She remains listed on the agency’s website as “business development manager”.