Marion Barter inquest: Conman Ric Blum’s $80,000 mystery ‘mugging’

Serial fraudster Ric Blum was ‘calm and relaxed’ when he told officers he had just been squeezed unconscious and robbed of €50,000 in a Gold Coast car park, police reports reveal.

Ric Blum.

Serial fraudster Ric Blum appeared calm and relaxed when he reported to police that he had just been squeezed unconscious and robbed of €50,000 in a Gold Coast car park – about $80,000 at today’s rate – in a complaint that now appears highly curious.

Detectives could find no supporting evidence for Mr Blum’s claim and made inquiries with the casino crime squad in case he lost the money gambling.

The incident is detailed in police reports, sighted by The Australian, that have been tendered at an ongoing inquest into the disappearance and suspected death of mother-of-two Marion Barter.

Marion Barter had a secret relationship with conman Ric Blum before she went missing in 1997.

Police didn’t know it at the time but Mr Blum’s robbery complaint came just days after he allegedly abandoned a Belgian widow in Bali after convincing her to give him €100,000 in cash to buy a house together.

It is the third time Mr Blum claims to have been attacked and robbed in a public place, with previous alleged muggings allegedly occurring at a train station and a busy European airport.

Mr Blum has become a central figure at the Barter inquest after admitting they had a secret relationship before she vanished in 1997, but he denies any involvement in her disappearance.

Marion Barter disappearance

How deep and dark does Ric Blum’s backstory go?

He’s the shadowy figure looming over Queensland mum Marion Barter’s disappearance. Fresh claims continue to emerge painting Blum as a master manipulator.

Accused Casanova conman denies dabbling in poisons

A man who has become the focus of inquiries into a schoolteacher’s mystery disappearance has denied having an interest in poisons.

Conman dad ‘gave lessons on poisons’

A convicted conman questioned over the disappearance of a Queensland teacher spoke in horrifying detail about how to kill people with homemade poison, his daughter says.

Conman ‘gave false evidence’ about daughter

The alleged serial fraudster who denied killing Queensland teacher Marion Barter gave false evidence when he said under oath that he’d never been in contact with his daughter, witnesses say.

Curious case of alleged conman and missing coins

It’s the conman’s collection – a combination of unusual artefacts and rare coins traced back to alleged serial fraudster Ric Blum.

New claim in missing mother mystery

A convicted conman questioned over the possible murder of his missing lover – the former wife of a Socceroos legend – is facing new claims he ripped off a widow.

Deceit and duplicity: the toxic trail of Ric Blum

The stone cold mystery of missing mum Marion Barter and her secret ties to conman Ric Blum has sent sleuths into overdrive. Here’s everything we know about the case.

Blum claimed entire family ‘exterminated’

Neighbours of the convicted conman — linked to missing mum Marion Barter — tried to raise the alarm when his bizarre stories began to unravel. Other lies were more disturbing.

A 40-year con, yet citizen swindler still here

Ric Blum, a central figure in the mystery of a missing teacher, became a citizen and claimed welfare for decades despite a serious criminal history abroad.

Border alerts failed to apprehend fraudster

A convicted conman who had an affair with a Queensland teacher just before she vanished was previously on a border watch list as authorities considered charging him with citizenship fraud.

‘If authorities acted … he’d have never met mum’

Missing teacher Marion Barter’s daughter says officials should have taken action against a convicted conman when they first concluded he’d obtained his citizenship fraudulently.

Conman should never have been able to become an Australian citizen

Marion Barter’s daughter Sally Leydon has every reason to be upset, angry and frustrated over the light touch shown by authorities to Ric Blum.

Bumbling case of serial fraudster

For Immigration, Mr Blum’s presence remains unfinished business.

Blum’s victim speaks out: ‘My God, I hope he suffers’

After conman Ric Blum connived is way into her home, Andree Flamme went right to the top but was never contacted by police. She tells her story for the first time.

Conman made quick buck on coins, were they stolen from widow?

He’s a prominent figure at a missing teacher’s NSW inquest, and now serial fraudster Ric Blum has been found selling the exact same type of coins he’s accused of stealing.

Fraudster’s wife warned ‘he has a gun’

Serial conman Ric Blum’s estranged wife warned her new partner he had a gun in the car when he turned up at a Belgian ferry terminal, a new witness says.

Conman Blum ‘got me at a low point’

A woman says serial fraudster Ric Blum got her at her lowest before threatening to send intimate images of her to her family, friends and church.

Missing mum inquest extended amid new evidence

An inquest into the presumed death of Queensland mother of two ­Marion Barter will hold extra hearings to examine new evidence.

Conman’s $80,000 mystery ‘mugging’

Serial fraudster Ric Blum was ‘calm and relaxed’ when he told officers he had just been squeezed unconscious and robbed of €50,000 in a Gold Coast car park, police reports reveal.

Fraudster’s unguarded moment caught on camera

Momentarily left alone in a police interview room, with a camera still recording, convicted conman Ric Blum dropped his head and appeared to utter a single audible word.

Premonition of burial site sparked search for missing teacher

Police searched a rural area of NSW for the grave of missing teacher Marion Barter after a man reported a vision of where she was buried.

Police reports state that on the morning of Tuesday April 3, 2012, Mr Blum attended the Pacific Fair shopping centre police beat.

After initially saying only that his wallet had been stolen, he was asked to return later because officers were dealing with a stolen vehicle, the reports state.

He went off to get some change from his car, bought a drink and wandered around the shops, then went back to the police and reported that two “Maori males” had assaulted him and robbed him of €50,000.

Pacific Fair shopping centre at Broadbeach, where police could find no witnesses to Ric Blum’s reported robbery.

Mr Blum, 72 at the time, said he drove into the shopping centre car park and parked in a disabled bay.

He was walking to the escalators when a man with a long ponytail grabbed him in a bear hug. A second man snatched from his hands a plastic bag containing the small fortune in cash.

Mr Blum said he collapsed from vertigo and regained consciousness minutes later to find the money and attackers gone.

He “appeared quite calm, relaxed and lucid” when he spoke to officers and was uninjured, a police report states.

At the purported crime scene there were no visible signs of a struggle, and no CCTV cameras.

An elderly man and woman were recorded going up the escalator into the shopping centre about a minute before Mr Blum entered.

Both would have seen Mr Blum lying unconscious in the car park, but no one came forward to police or approached staff in the shopping centre, a police report states.

“Investigations thus far indicate that it is highly unlikely that there would be no witnesses … and yet no persons have ­approached police or centre ­security.”

Police visited Mr Blum’s home and said his wife Diane “showed no signs of being distressed”.

Mr Blum, who said he was on a disability pension, claimed that he had brought the cash back from Europe in €200 notes wrapped in “Fortis” bank paper after cousins gave the money to him for a prostate operation in Australia. The wrapping and exact amount were curious because the Belgian widow he is accused of fleecing in Bali says she gave Mr Blum two lots of €50,000 in cash that she had withdrawn from a branch of Belgium’s giant Fortis bank.

Known by the pseudonym “Charlotte”, the woman says Mr Blum booked her into a wellness package in late March 2012, then left for a purported business meeting and never returned.

He emailed her on April 1, two days before he reported being mugged on the Gold Coast, saying he took the money because her late husband owed it to him.

Why he would potentially ­invent a story about being robbed is unknown, but one theory is that it may have given him an excuse for not returning Charlotte’s money.

Another alleged victim of his, Janet Oldenburg, says he claimed six men bashed him with baseball bats and robbed him of her identity documents, title deeds and house keys at a French train station in December 1999.

Mr Blum says he was also hospitalised after being attacked at Amsterdam’s airport in the 1970s.