A former state premier has admitted to paying thousands of dollars in legal fees for a serial fraudster who has described him as a “father figure” but maintains he was misled and used by the young con artist while trying to help him turn his life around.
This masthead recently reported that David Prince-Popovich was wanted for fraud offences in Queensland after being jailed for scamming an ex-partner out of $130,000 in Sydney and being accused of paying a fake house deposit worth $50,000, among other alleged scams.
David Prince-Popovich (right) posing with former Queensland premier Rob Borbidge at the National Party federal council in September 2024.Credit: Instagram
The 24-year-old has been living in Hobart, Tasmania, more than 1000 kilometres away from the state where there is a warrant out for his arrest and which is home to former Queensland premier Rob Borbidge AO.
This masthead can reveal that in 2023, as Prince-Popovich faced charges of fraudulently hiring a private jet and party boat worth tens of thousands of dollars, Borbidge, 70, stepped in to cover more than $8000 in unpaid legal fees.
Borbidge says he introduced Prince-Popovich to well-known lawyer Hugo Aston and stepped in to financially help the young man after he did not pay Aston, believing Prince-Popovich’s claims that there had been innocent issues with his bank that prevented payment.
Aston confirmed to this masthead that Borbidge paid Prince-Popovich’s fees after he allegedly defrauded the lawyer by reversing his own payment. Prince-Popovich denies this.
David Prince-Popovich pretended to be a pilot – one of his many falsehoods.
Borbidge, who served as the 35th premier of Queensland from 1996 to 1998 until losing office amid the rise of Pauline Hanson’s One Nation Party, said he was “gutted” to learn that he had become “a victim in this as much as anyone else”.
Prince-Popovich is dubbed the “playboy swindler” for meeting many of his victims on dating apps before allegedly scamming some out of their savings, taking loans out in their names without their knowledge and not repaying them for lavish adventures.
Non-romantic interests have also been targets of a man whose own mother has described as a “narcissistic sociopath”. Others said he told them his mother died of cancer, and he tricked friends into planning lavish trips to the Whitsundays and Switzerland for a fake wedding to an imaginary partner.
As the web of lies began unravelling, several sources who spoke on the condition of anonymity told this masthead that Prince-Popovich was often seen with a high-profile former politician and their well-connected friend in the construction industry.
Those men were Borbidge and Queensland-based building director at TK Project Construction, Timothy Barr, neither of whom is accused of any wrongdoing.
Barr said he met Borbidge through a mutual acquaintance and they had no formal business relationship. He said Borbidge asked if he would consider hiring Prince-Popovich for a project of his that did not materialise.
Prince-Popovich and Borbidge both said they met through the young man’s membership with the Young Nationals and struck up a friendship in which the former premier acted as a mentor.
They said they had no professional relationship beyond a logistics proposal made by Prince-Popovich – who worked in sales for a shipping line – for a company with which Borbidge was associated.
In September 2023, when Prince-Popovich was held on remand in Sydney’s Silverwater jail on fraud charges after being extradited from Tasmania, Prince-Popovich called Borbidge and asked for help.
“He said, ‘I’ve been arrested, can you find a lawyer for me? I don’t know who else to turn to’,” Borbidge said.
Borbidge said he knew the “basis” of Prince-Popovich’s actions but not the full details and was unaware he was previously convicted of a $100,000 fraud.
“I thought that this was a young guy that had made a mistake who deserved a second chance.”
The 24-year-old lives an extravagant life filled with unexplained wealth.Credit: Instagram
“I thought, well, this is a young, troubled guy that I can help to get back on track here … If he can just apply himself and do the right thing, he can play a valuable role in society.”
Borbidge reached out to Aston, who says he did some preliminary work for Prince-Popovich but withdrew from representation after the young man failed to pay him.
Aston said Prince-Popovich’s money landed in his account and then disappeared, leaving him with an outstanding bill of more than $8000.
Borbidge said he believed Prince-Popovich’s claims that he had a two-system verification on his payments, and because his phone and iPad had been confiscated by police, he could not verify the payments, and they subsequently were not made.
There was confusion about whether Prince-Popovich “should have paid, could not pay, did not pay”, and he entered into an arrangement to pay the outstanding legal fees.
‘I thought I was helping a young guy in trouble re-establish himself … Add me to the list of victims’
Rob Borbidge, former Queensland premier
Following the legal saga, the pair remained friends, and Borbidge said it was not until he read this masthead’s revelations this month that he realised the full extent of Prince-Popovich’s crimes, adding he “absolutely” regrets paying the legal fees.
“I’m just absolutely, absolutely gutted. I mean, just incredibly disappointed,” he said, adding he “genuinely and sincerely acted in good faith” but has realised in hindsight he may have been naive.
“I thought I was helping a young guy in trouble re-establish himself, right through the process. He’d never done the wrong thing by me. I’m just devastated that I’ve been, quite frankly, misled and used,” he said.
“Add me to the list of victims.”
Rob Borbidge in 2022.Credit: Paul Harris
Prince-Popovich told this masthead Borbidge had been a father figure and valuable mentor to him through difficult times.
He denied any fraud regarding Aston, saying the bank unexpectedly reversed his payment through no fault of his own.
“It needs to be made clear that I was in custody, and that is the only reason why [Borbidge] paid for it in the first place,” he said.
“He did it expecting to be paid back … I paid every cent of it back.”
Borbidge said Prince-Popovich had paid back “some of the fees”.
In October, Prince-Popovich posted a photo to Instagram in which he posed with Borbidge at the National Party’s federal conference at the Australian War Memorial in Canberra.
Borbidge said Prince-Popovich was there to represent a winery with which he was connected.
Before resigning from the Queensland parliament in 2001, Borbidge served as a member for Surfers Paradise for two decades and was the last member of the National Party’s Queensland branch to become premier.
Prince-Popovich affects a life of wealth and sophistication.
Post-politics, Borbidge has held a number of board positions in private and publicly listed companies and is listed as a principal consultant with lobby firm Govstrat. Among Govstrat’s clients are mining giant Rio Tinto, betting companies Pointsbet and UniBet Australia, and coal producer Baralaba Coal Company.
He is listed in ASIC records as a director of a tourism company, Experience Gold Coast, arts organisation Placemakers Gold Coast, and healthcare charity Trinity Health Services.
He is also listed online as the chair of the infrastructure advisory firm Azcende, and was previously chair of aeromedical organisation LifeFlight Australia.
In 2006, he was awarded an Officer of the Order of Australia and an Honorary Doctorate from Griffith University.
‘Up to his old tricks’ in new life in Hobart
As Prince-Popovich remains wanted in Queensland, he has been living a seemingly relaxed life thousands of kilometres away in Hobart.
Despite earlier telling this masthead he took full responsibility for his past dishonesty, one man disagrees and claims he tried to defraud him even after making those comments.
Speaking on the condition of anonymity due to privacy concerns, the man said he met Prince-Popovich on a dating app and allegedly lent him hundreds of dollars.
When he asked for the money back, Prince-Popovich offered excuses and the man became suspicious. A Google search revealed this masthead’s story, and he realised he was dealing with a skilled con artist.
The man said Prince-Popovich pretended to repay him with a false bank receipt and repaid the money only when he threatened to go to the police.
It’s like ‘how do you really think you’re not gonna get caught?’ It just baffles me
A woman alleged duped by Prince-Popovich
Another person who came forward since this masthead’s report shared how she met Prince-Popovich before he went to prison in late 2022 and quickly became friends with the “charismatic, funny and fun” man.
She was ecstatic when he invited her group of friends on a private jet to attend his “hen’s party” in the Whitsundays and an all-expenses-paid extravagant wedding in Switzerland, arriving in helicopters after a breathtaking trip through the Alps.
But she says his fiancee did not exist.
While the woman cut ties with him after catching onto his lies, Prince-Popovich did book the private jet by defrauding a company out of $30,000 and took a different group of people he had met at a Sydney hotel on holiday to the Whitsundays.
The woman also said that while Prince-Popovich had to report to the police station daily as part of his bail conditions, he said he was attending for “welfare checks” over an abusive ex-partner.
She said he treated her friends to expensive dinners and offered elaborate excuses.
“We were like, are we gaslighting ourselves?”
“And now learning about all the more serious stuff he’s done, it’s like ‘how do you really think you’re not gonna get caught?’ It just baffles me”.
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