Anthony Mauceri: Disgraced Gold Coast realtor ordered to pay Office of Fair Trading $154,983.58

A Broadbeach real estate agent who siphoned cash from his agency’s trust fund for gambling and business costs – dudding 32 clients – is yet to repay taxpayers a year after a letter of demand.

GCQ Property Sales and Rentals Pty Ltd was based at Broadbeach, on the Gold Coast. Photo: Rian Cope/Tourism & Events Queensland

A Gold Coast real estate agent who siphoned cash from his agency’s trust fund to spend on gambling and business costs, dudding 32 clients, is yet to repay taxpayers a year after a letter of demand.

Anthony James Mauceri, 63, who at the relevant time was the sole director of Broadbeach firm GCQ Property Sales and Rentals Pty Ltd, was jailed for a minimum of seven months in February 2022 after pleading guilty in the Southport District Court to two counts of misappropriation of trust funds.

Mauceri made 63 unauthorised transfers from his company’s sales and rental trust accounts totalling $111,437 to pay employee wages, fund gambling and general business expenses, the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) said at the time.

Thirty-two affected customers of GCQ were compensated with taxpayer dollars courtesy a claim fund set up by OFT.

Mauceri was sentenced by the Southport District Court (pictured) to three years’ imprisonment, to serve a minimum of seven months, in February 2022. Picture: NewsWire / Richard Gosling

Now, OFT has ramped up its efforts to bill Mauceri for the money reimbursed to his victims, obtaining an order from the Queensland Civil and Administrative Tribunal (QCAT) that Mauceri must pay OFT $154,983.58 within 21 days of the decision date, February 17.

The amount sought by OFT relates to the $111,437 it reimbursed GCQ’s dudded clients, plus $44,392.43 paid out to the OFT-appointed receivers of the company and trust property.

According to tribunal member Michael Howe in his written decision, OFT sent a letter of demand to Mauceri on January 17 last year, but the demand was not complied with.

Mauceri filed no material as part of the QCAT claim, and “failed to participate at all in the proceedings,” according to Mr Howe.

Mr Howe said Mauceri, by virtue of the provisions of the Agents Financial Administration Act 2014 (Qld), was liable to reimburse the OFT for both the amount paid out via the claim found, and the cost of receivership.

Should Mauceri again fail to repay the money, as he did for a year after the letter of demand was sent, OFT can begin enforcement proceedings in court.

If an enforcement warrant was to be issued, debtors could have their property and/or land seized and sold, and wages garnished, amid a suite of measures open to the court.

Originally published as Anthony Mauceri: Disgraced Gold Coast realtor ordered to pay Office of Fair Trading $154,983.58