‘Beggars belief’: ANZ’s careless act in country town

A real estate agent tried to blackmail big bank ANZ when he threatened to expose their thoughtless act in his town by going to the media.

ANZ Bank left thousands of their customers’ personal documents lying around after vacating a property, a court heard.

A country real estate agent tried to blackmail the ANZ Bank after they left “thousands” of customers’ confidential documents lying around and didn’t respond to his requests to come and get them.

Scott Burgess was sentenced to a two-year community corrections order with 250 hours of unpaid work in the County Court of Victoria on Friday.

Sentencing judge Gerard Mullaly said the 40-year-old was the real estate agent handling the bank ending a commercial lease of their Corryong branch in the Snowy Mountains region of Victoria.

Burgess and his wife also owned the building, which was already leased to the bank when they purchased it in 2007.

When ANZ moved out of the property in January 2019, he went to complete an end-of-lease inspection and found “thousands” of pages of important paperwork “just left in the building” without being shredded.

He told an ANZ employee it was a small town and he felt uncomfortable knowing how much money people had, the aftermath of people’s wills being executed, and their chequebook information – facts he inadvertently obtained when reviewing the material the bank left behind.

When he emailed ANZ with this shocking information an employee replied she had “followed up with the projects team”, and two weeks went by with radio silence between the bank and Burgess.

He then sent an email asking for $25,000 in exchange for the documents, threatening to go to the media.

Burgess and two ANZ employees met up in Wodonga on February 28, 2019 and exchanged the documents for a transfer of $25,000 into his account.

ANZ covertly recorded the exchange, the transfer was immediately retracted and Burgess was arrested.

Judge Mullaly said “obviously” the bank was never going to honour the blackmail and commented on Burgess’ “naivety”.

The summer bushfires were catastrophic in Corryong and destroyed much of Scott Burgess’ wholesale nursery business. Picture: Jason Edwards

He said the bank employees were “incredulous” the documents had been left after ANZ vacated the premises, with one commenting it “beggars belief”.

After these events Burgess found more confidential documents and contacted police, who told him to talk to the bank directly – and Burgess again asked for a “holding cost” for his troubles.

Burgess demanded $25,000 because ANZ had damaged or changed the building during its tenancy to the effect of $27,615, an independent assessment found, and wouldn’t “make good on it” or respond to emails, Burgess told police in his interview.

He felt he was “in an impossible situation as there was no bond or any way to compel ANZ to undertake the remedial work”, his lawyer David Cronin previously told the court.

“It is submitted that the ‘demands’ are reflective of the necessary repairs to the building as opposed to being motivated by unjust enrichment or greed,” he said.

Judge Mullaly said Burgess was born in Corryong and raised by “hardworking, supportive” parents before starting his first business at the age of 19 in the town of about 1200 people.

After living in Queensland and overseas he returned to Corryong around 2008, got married and had a daughter and worked in his real estate business and a wholesale nursery business called Fuchsiarama.

He also has a son from a previous marriage who he supports with “significant sums” and visits regularly.

Much of Fuchsiarama was “destroyed by the catastrophic bushfires of (the) summer”, Judge Mullaly said.

“Your parents lost their home,” he said to Burgess.

“(It was a) truly terrifying experience.

“You, your wife, and parents lost a great deal, but you still consider yourself one of the lucky ones in the Corryong community.”

He said he would not sentence Burgess to jail because it was not the most serious example of the crime of blackmail.

“The offence of blackmail is always serious but can vary in terms of his gravity,” he said.

He said unlike some previous landmark blackmail decisions, the ANZ Bank was not a “vulnerable” victim.