Road-safety warrior Harold Scruby challenges scam; Lib MP less than transparent

Pedestrian Council of Australia chairman Harold Scruby.

Harold Scruby, the oft-quoted champion of road safety, has made a career out of saving journalists in need of a talking head, especially on matters relating to speed cameras, petrol prices, pesky bicycle share paths, and anything else concerning ­asphalt.

But the chairman of the Pedestrian Council of Australia appears to have needed some saving of his own in recent months after being fleeced of $700,000 in a cryptocurrency scam.

The details are contained in court filings obtained by The Australian in a case that pits Scruby’s company, Pinot Noir Pty Ltd, against an obscure entity dubbed Sovereign Green Capital Pty Ltd, owned by an individual named Tony Adams, of Drummoyne in Sydney.

The particulars date back to mid-March when Scruby took a phone call from someone using the name Shane Porter, who was spruiking an investment product described in the statement of claim as “Sovereign Green Bonds”.

Porter’s spiel sounded convincing enough. He himself claimed to be a “customer service adviser” with Deutsche Bank, which offered the bonds and allegedly guaranteed them against defaults with a host of protections.

What followed was the usual grift from the scammer’s playbook: Porter said the product was “one of the best investments going around” owing to their interest rate offering of 0.99 per cent per quarter.

Pedestrians’ lobbyist Harold Scruby. Picture: Craig Wilson

Unfortunately, Deutsche Bank does not offer Sovereign Green Bonds in Australia, according to the filings. It also turned out that Porter himself – true identity: unknown – was not an employee of the bank.

The glossy prospectus he sent to Scruby was also, allegedly, a fake.

But by the time these facts were known, Scruby and his wife had already deposited $250,000 on behalf of Pinot Noir Pty Ltd and $450,000 of their own funds, all of which had been remitted to a Bendigo Bank account where the money was paid out.

In a defence filing, Adams, of Drummoyne, alleged that his Sovereign Green Capital Pty Ltd was retained by a UK company – SH Consultants Pty Ltd – and that the Scruby’s money was ultimately transferred to a cryptocurrency account to buy bitcoin.

Adams did this “in good faith”, he alleged, saying he was entitled to do so, and that the company – which received a commission – would “be in a worse position if ordered to repay the plaintiffs”.

On Friday, Judge Lindsay of the NSW Supreme Court ordered that Adams and his company repay the Scrubys their $700,000, along with pre-judgment interest of about $11,000 and full costs. The matter will return for hearing later in August.

Scruby declined to comment when contacted.

Called to account

In a recent bit of sniping penned for The Daily Telegraph, Paul Fletcher mounted an attack against Anthony Albanese for cutting the number of parliamentary sitting days, framing it as an unacceptable rejection of “transparency and accountability” demanded by the public.

But what of Fletcher’s own vigorous commitment to transparency and accountability, both of which were mentioned no fewer than seven times in the former communication minister’s feeble hit-piece?

Now manager of opposition business, Fletcher’s registrable interests appeared online this week with what appear to be a cavalier disregard for the rules of transparency and accountability, given the inexplicable gaps in some of his family’s investments, directorships and share ownership.

For example, Fletcher admits in the document that he is unaware of whether his 26-year-old stepson holds shares in any companies; rather than ask him out of an abundance of caution, he fobbed off the need altogether and conceded that he hadn’t bothered to query him.

Paul Fletcher and wife Manuela. Picture: David Barwell

Even worse was the case of Fletcher’s wife, Manuela Zappacosta, whose financial affairs largely remain a mystery to Fletcher – because he hasn’t asked.

“I do not know if Manuela Zappacosta is a director of any other companies and I have not made inquiry (sic),” he wrote.

One would have thought such basic fact-finding would be foundational to the purported standards of integrity that Fletcher proselytised in The Daily Telegraph last month.

His half-arsed responses continued in identical fashion under the headings of bonds, debentures, additional bank accounts, assets valued over $7500, and other investments held by Zappacosta.

“I have not made inquiry (sic),” he responded with the same grammatically offensive excuse.

Margin Call understands that Fletcher has been doing this for nigh on a decade with his registrable interest, and his previous returns confirm as much.

In response to questions, he said he “completely complied” with his obligations and those of his wife, but there were limitations on how far he would probe her affairs, out of principle.

“I also respect my wife’s agency and do not believe that everything she does is my business,” he said. “Therefore I do not interrogate every aspect of her life. This is a long-held position and one of principle for me.”

And thus the principle of absolute integrity, we gather, is a second-order priority.

 

Perrottet exit

Another ominous creaking of the turnstiles over at the offices of NSW Premier Dominic Perrottet, with Margin Call learning of the very recent departure of director of strategy Mike Duffy, who doffed his cap last week.

Duffy, a former journalist with Channel 7, began working for Perrottet last year when the skies over the NSW government remained somewhat cloudless. Back then, few people could have envisaged the future agents of scandal lying in wait to trash its reputation, and on current trends, to put most of its staff out of work come March.

Illustration: Rod Clement

Margin Call has confirmed that Duffy has taken a corporate affairs role with Andrew Forrest’s Squadron Energy – the energy division of Tattarang – where he’s likely to have his hands full given the recent staff turnover. We hear Forrest is also hands-on with the micromanagement, too.

Squadron’s departures have included Stuart Johnston, formerly its chief executive, who quit last year to take a job as CEO of Gina Rinehart’s Hancock Energy. His predecessor, James Baulderstone, was poached by Sanjeev Gupta’s GFG Alliance.

Meanwhile, Duffy’s exit follows the other recent departure of Kathy Lipari from Perrottet’s office. Lipari’s time with Perrottet was conspicuously short, having joined his office in March after a lengthy career at News Corp Australia. She’s off to a start-up.

Both took jobs that were too good to refuse, or so we’re told. But with the Perrottet government turning gangrenous to the public, the bar on that seems pretty low.