Musician turned alleged property scammer Craig Heath sets sights on single women investors

A Melbourne musician who worked with Keith Urban and Rick Springfield before allegedly fleecing victims of almost $10m has turned his attention to single women.

Police say Melbourne musician turned property scammer Craig Heath is asking single women to invest in his projects. Picture: YouTube

A Melbourne musician who worked with country star Keith Urban before allegedly fleecing victims of almost $10m through property scams has set his sights on single women.

Craig Heath is accused of running a series of investment scams that saw some victims lose their entire life savings.

He allegedly convinced more than a dozen people to invest in five property projects which all fell flat, owing some almost half a million dollars each.

Among those who lost huge sums of money was a single mother with an autistic son.

She lost $200,000 in life savings.

A 68-year-old pensioner was allegedly defrauded of more than $700,000 in equity, and a couple successfully launched bankruptcy proceedings against Mr Heath after they lost almost a quarter of a million dollars.

Detectives allege that Heath approaches his victims and offers to knock down their homes to build sets of townhouses in their place.

They also allege that he convinces his victims that he is an established property developer before making off with thousands of dollars.

Craig Heath and Jon Stevens. Picture: Facebook

Melbourne musician Craig Heath performing a gig. Picture: YouTube

It’s understood the scam - which has fleeced unsuspecting people of at least $8.7m - has occurred in affluent Melbourne suburbs such as Beaumaris, Bentleigh, East Brighton, Toorak, Malvern East, Murrumbeena he has turned his attention to single women in the Malvern East area.

“Cardinia Crime Investigation Unit detectives have received reports from 15 victims who have each lost between $20,000 and $2.1 million since the investment scam was first reported to police in 2011,” a Victoria Police statement said.

“Once the victims hand over the funds to build the townhouses, their developments were bought out by other investors without the building works proceeding.

“The offender then takes off with the cash from both the original property owner, plus the new investors.

“Most recently, it’s believed the man is trying to befriend single women in the Malvern East area in an effort to convince them to invest in construction projects he is involved in.”

Police say Mr Heath is branching out his prospective clients. Picture: Alex Coppel.

The father of two established development company Heathcorp with his dad before it went into liquidation in October 2016.

Mr Heath was then declared bankrupt in 2017.

John Pedder was one of Mr Heath’s alleged victims, who claimed to have lost $200,000 in a failed property project.

Mr Pedder said the project was based on documents that contained false pictures from an unrelated development project.

John Pedder, 61, was duped by Mr Heath in a property investment scam. Picture: Andrew Henshaw

Shortly after signing his cash over to the company, Heathcorp, it went into liquidation and the money effectively vanished.

Mr Pedder later acquired a Carnegie property that was owned by Heathcorp after he contacted VCAT about the alleged scam.

Police are urging anyone with information on fraudulent activity to contact Crime Stoppers.