Hamish McLaren: how a smooth-talking swindler in a suit stole $7m
A major investigative series will uncover tens of millions of dollars worth of frauds committed by Hamish McLaren | LISTEN
He had a knack for being just the man you needed in a crisis — and the moment Hamish McLaren stepped through Karen Lowe’s front door, dressed in a Tom Ford suit, he had all the cures for her maladies.
Ms Lowe was in a spot of financial bother, paying for maintenance on a harbourside mansion in Sydney’s Mosman, the house she had kept in her divorce settlement. A friend who had invested money with McLaren and received incredible returns — on paper at least — insisted he was just the fellow you needed in a pickle. During the next few months, the smooth-talking McLaren infiltrated Ms Lowe’s life, becoming a trusted adviser and friend, all the while betraying her and leaving her $1.3 million in debt to the bank.
Ms Lowe is among a slew of victims, including fashion designer Lisa Ho, to have been caught up in McLaren’s Ponzi scheme — a scam that fleeced a dozen or so victims of more than $7m between 2011 and 2017.
He pleaded guilty to 18 charges of fraud last September and is to be sentenced by a judge in Sydney next week; but these are just the final crimes in a career spanning decades and continents.
A major investigative series, to be told in print and in podcasts, will uncover tens of millions of dollars worth of frauds committed by McLaren in Australia, Britain, Canada, the US and Hong Kong.
TIMELINE
A conman's life
- March 29, 1970
- Hamish Watson born
- 1980s
- Watson attends Pittwater House private school in Sydney’s northern beaches
- Late 1990s
- Watson is a Sydney Futures Exchange floor trader, in a relationship with Gabrielle ‘The Pleasure Machine’ Richens
- December 2, 1999
- Watson buys 14 Florida Road, Palm Beach, for a record $3.9m
- July 2000
- Harts Australasia floated on Australian Stock Exchange, Watson takes control of $5m
- October 2001
- Harts collapses, posts $93m loss
- July 8, 2003
- ASIC bans Watson from acting as a representative of a dealer, investment adviser, futures broker or futures adviser, for three years
- May 16, 2011
- Watson is married under the new surname McLaren
- September 14, 2011
- McLaren meets fashion designer Lisa Ho. He begins to manage her superannuation, ingratiates himself with the Lisa Ho Group
- November 2012
- Ho, who is experiencing issues with her company, requests her superannuation money back. McLaren gives excuses why it couldn’t be returned
- January 6, 2015
- McLaren goes to Karen Lowe's home in Mosman and says he can help her get a bank loan to renovate her house
- January 19, 2015
- McLaren organises the $1m loan for Lowe through ANZ Bank on her behalf
- February 5-17, 2015
- $650,000 is transferred from Lowe to McLaren to invest
- April 18, 2015
- McLaren flies Lowe to meet him in New York
- April 18-May 6, 2015
- McLaren organises and pays for Lowe to fly to London. There he meets several of her friends
- May 26, 2015
- Lowe's loan is increased to $1.3m. $300,000 is transferred to McLaren
- June 3, 2015
- Lowe becomes aware of the unauthorised transaction
- June 30, 2015
- McLaren meets Lowe in Oxfordshire, England
- January 16, 2016
- McLaren is divorced
- October 11, 2016
- McLaren is bankrupted by Ho after he made some payments as per settlement agreement but then stopped
The first episode in the series, Who the Hell is Hamish?, will be launched later today. It details the experiences of another victim, single mother Tracy Hall.
For 16 months, Ms Hall was dating a handsome and caring hedge-fund manager called Max Tavita; it was not until McLaren was arrested in July 2017 that she realised Tavita had never existed and McLaren had duped her out of more than $300,000 in super and savings.
The scale and cruelty of McLaren’s crimes are breathtaking — he duped and deceived friends, girlfriends and his former wife. He stole the life savings of pensioners and the nest eggs of parents who were squirrelling money away for their disabled son. He ruined lives and numerous marriages. He fleeced the man he had asked to be the best man at his wedding.
Ms Lowe, who has been in ill health from all the stress that McLaren had caused, said yesterday she was glad the podcast would shed light on the man who had caused so much turmoil.
One of the common themes uncovered in the podcast is that numerous victims had gone to the police only to be rebuffed. A number of victims were told by the police that it was a commercial dispute; others were simply ignored. The podcast will expose the easy ride that white-collar criminals have in Australia.
Ms Lowe, 62, said learning more about McLaren’s history and behaviour from other victims made her furious. “I’m disgusted,” she said. “I’m so angry.”
For decades, he had been ripping off people and ruining lives, she said, and until recently nothing was done to stop him.
A friend introduced Ms Lowe to McLaren, who said he was a share trader, in January 2015 in the hope that he could help her arrange a $200,000 bank loan to carry out repairs on her home.
He talked and looked the part, she said, carrying with him a computer running a program that looked like he was actively trading for his company, Container8 Asset Management.
“(He was) charming in his Tom Ford suit and tie,” Ms Lowe said. “He assured me that everything was going to be OK, and that’s all I needed to hear at the time. He ingratiated himself into my life, with my friends.”
McLaren organised a $1m loan, later unwittingly increased to $1.3m, through ANZ on her behalf. Of that money, $200,000 was to be spent on the renovations, $150,000 to pay off another loan and the remaining $650,000 was to be invested by McLaren.
The money was never invested and was instead used to make payments to other victims.
By June 2015, Ms Lowe grew increasingly worried about McLaren’s activity. She has tried in vain to get her money back ever since. “He completely did me over,” she said. “From the moment he walked into my house, he knew what he was out to do.
“I feel a complete idiot. I introduced him to people … and some of them have said, ‘Oh my goodness Karen, from the first moment he walked in I knew there was something not quite right there’.”
After a lengthy police investigation, McLaren was arrested by detectives at Bondi in July 2017.
“I am quietly dreading seeing him in court, but I’m going to court because I need an end to this,” Ms Lowe said.
Do you know more? hamishpodcast@theaustralian.com.au
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