Restaurateur Harry Omeros ‘cut off’ as ATO chases $5.2m

A prominent Gold Coast restaurant ­family has distanced themselves from a member who is being chased over a $5.2 million tax bill, with his mum saying she “severed all connections” with him, a court has heard.

Harry Omeros at Southport Magistrates Court.

A SCION of the prominent Gold Coast restaurant ­family the Omeros Bros has had “no contact” with his mum, who has “severed all connections” with him, a court has heard.

Harry Omeros, 31, a former restaurateur and father of two from Hope Island, is due in court later this month after he failed to pay a $5.2 million tax bill and the Australian Taxation Office (ATO) is trying to bankrupt him.

The ATO last year sued him in the Supreme Court in Brisbane alleging he owed taxes for the financial years between 2011 and 2016.

Harry Omeros faces a $5.2 million tax bill. Picture: Glenn Hampson

The Supreme Court heard that Mr Omeros’s mum told a process server hired by the ATO “she had severed all connections with” her son “and was unaware of where he was residing and had no contact with him at all”.

Helen Omeros, 58, is alleged to have made the comments to process server Ross Williams from Probe Group on August 16, 2017, when Mr Williams went to the $3.5 million waterfront Sovereign Island trophy home owned by Harry’s father Nick, 66, to serve court documents.

The palatial Knightsbridge Parade address was listed on Mr Omeros’s returning passenger card submitted to immigration when returning from a trip to China with his partner Samantha Sleep, the court heard.

Mr Omeros, who called himself a “building” industry worker on the card, would not meet Mr Williams to be served with the documents, when phoned by him, the court heard.

Harry Omeros outside Southport Magistrates Court.

The ATO submitted to the Supreme Court that Harry Omeros was either “seeking to evade service” or “at least uncooperative” with attempts to meet with process servers.

The court heard that process servers tried to slap Mr Omeros with demands for payment, but he was impossible to track down in person at his parents’ house or at another Paradise Point home, or through his Gold Coast accountant, forcing the ATO to ask the Supreme Court to allow them to post the documents to him.

More recently the ATO has stated his address is in Hope Island.

Mr Omeros, who is a member of the clan behind the Marina Mirage’s Omeros Bros seafood restaurant and a former owner of Oceans by Omeros in Surfers Paradise, did not file a notice of intention to defend the Supreme Court case and he was ordered to pay $5.16 million on March 26.

In a separate criminal case, Harry Omeros is also awaiting trial for an alleged boiler-room fraud. Police allege he fleeced at least $400,000 from 15 victims through cold-call schemes that offered investments in the sharemarket, binary trading, sports betting, property and eBay businesses.

He was arrested in his Southport office in September 2016 and charged with two counts of fraud.

He is due in Southport District Court on March 14 for a mention of his five fraud charges and no trial date has been set.

His bankruptcy case is due in the Federal Circuit Court on January 24.

Originally published as Restaurateur Harry Omeros ‘cut off’ as ATO chases $5.2m