Hamish McLaren: conman didn’t just rip women off, he married one

Hamish McLaren didn’t just rip off his victims, he married one. When Bec Rosen looks back ‘it makes me want to vomit.’

Bec Rosen at a friend’s house in Sydney this month. Picture: Adam Yip

He arrived in the NSW hamlet of Blueys Beach with a beautiful woman on his arm and a waft of rumours about his dark past — Hamish McLaren was like Gatsby of the Great Lakes.

Mother of three boys Bec Rosen had heard the stories — her own family had raised a big red flag — but she believed him when he said he had changed.

“He’s got these intense blue eyes, and he just literally engages like nobody’s business,” Ms Rosen said. “I felt special. And I believed what he was saying. He could convince me that whatever was happening wasn’t really happening.”

Ms Rosen’s harrowing story is shared in the latest episode of The Australian’spodcast — Who The Hell Is Hamish? — out now.

It reveals how McLaren didn’t just rip off his victims; he even married one. He took more than $7 million combined from his victims between 2011 and 2015 and has pleaded guilty to 18 charges of fraud. He is due to be sentenced on June 13.

Ms Rosen first met McLaren when he walked into the cafe where she was working, on the mid-north NSW coast, looking like a typical “surfie dude” with a shaved head and stubble.

He offered stability for the recently divorced Ms Rosen and her three young sons, and talked of wanting to live a simple life. But, over the course of their relationship and marriage, she watched him transform into an exercise-obsessed, Botoxed, Tom Ford-suit-wearing high-flyer with bleached blond hair.

Ms Rosen on the day of her 2010 wedding to conman Hamish McLaren.

Ms Rosen became entangled in McLaren’s web of deceit as the conman betrayed his new family and ripped off his victims.

Despite the warning signs Ms Rosen noticed throughout their relationship, she stuck with him until she could no longer ignore the ugly truth. Only when their ­relationship ended did the debt collectors start showing up on Ms Rosen’s doorstep and she discovered McLaren had taken out ­numerous car loans in her name, having allegedly forged her ­signature. It would take years to untangle.

“I backed Hamish 100 per cent and have sent awful, scathing emails to people who he told me were doing the wrong thing and were demanding money,” Ms Rosen said. “I thought I was being a good wife and supporting him.

“He’s so good at making you feel like you are wrong and he made me believe everything.”

Ms Rosen was working in a cafe at Blueys Beach in 2008, having recently moved from Singapore after her marriage broke down, when McLaren walked in for the first time. Initially she was “repulsed” by the man who was finicky about his food and would ask her on dates even though he had a girlfriend. “He gently, really slowly, weaselled his way into our lives,” Ms Rosen said.

Ms Rosen said it was ironic that their first date was to the cinema to see a James Bond film, because “he always fancied himself a bit of a 007”. “He was always there and knew what to say and he focused on the kids, because he knew that was my big thing. I think that’s how I ended up falling in love with him, which just makes me want to vomit right now.”

The couple was married in 2010 at a small wedding attended by close friends and family. McLaren’s parents did not attend.

Ms Rosen said McLaren often bragged about his “unbelievable” past and she often caught him out telling lies. At first they were small. But as time passed, they grew as McLaren set his sights on living the fast-paced lifestyle he once had made headlines for.

“He was kind of this chubby surfer dude when I first met him,” she said. “That all slipped away to where suddenly there was this guy wearing Tom Ford suits and driving fancy cars.”

McLaren’s life began to revolve around Sydney, where he had an apartment, and the relationship ended badly in 2014. It was then the debt collectors started chasing Ms Rosen for money she owed on “at least four” car loans worth ­approximately $650,000. She had never signed for the loans and did not know they existed. “I’d have debt collectors on my door all the time,” she said. “I still get letters. The debts are still in my name.”

The damage Mr McLaren did to her life was not only financial.

“It wasn’t like I lost a big chunk of money, because I didn’t have it; it was more the devastation he has caused to our family,” she said.

“The boys were so influenced by Hamish that there was a long time where they all sided with him. They were young and didn’t know and he was so persuasive. He’s incredibly good at finding your personal needs and wants and ticking every single box.”