|
|
by Peter John
Lynch(PJL) of
Lynch Investigations & Countermeasures
Pty Ltd
Grad. Cert. Fraud Investigations (CSU)
Adv. Dip. Gov Fraud Control Management
Adv. Dip. Security Risk Management
www.pjlinvestigations.com.au
It had been a long day at the Consumer Tenancy Trade
Tribunal in Castlereagh St, Sydney. A client I was
representing was trying to recover $1,000.00c from a private
investigation training organisation that had been defrauded
from them, on a private investigation training package
purchase. We had won judgment on the day although the
training organisation hadn’t appeared at the conciliation or
the hearing on that day.
I caught the train from Central Train Station to Hurstville
Train Station on my way home to the Sutherland Shire. I made
a visit to a commercial agent in Hurstville that I knew, who
ran a search through DTMS records to get some neighbors
phone numbers close by to where the debtor was thought to be
living. The next morning I called some neighbors who lived
in the same block of apartments as the debtor. The kind lady
I spoke with said she knew of the name given to her (the
debtor) and forwarded me onto the property manager, who
managed the debtor’s residence.
I called the property manager on the telephone. The property
manager said all she could do would be to forward on post
mail, to the debtors name mentioned, that had been living in
there managed property and she explained the debtor was
known to them and had been living at the mentioned address
but she couldn’t confirm with me that the debtor was still
living at the address or not.
Earlier in the task I had obtained a company extract from
ASIC for the debtor (the private investigation training
organisation). The company extract stated that the debtor
was documented as the director of the company. One of the
private investigation industries well known unscrupulous
private investigators was the only
shareholder of the company, with the business registered on
George Street, Sydney. The training organisation was
advertising as trading from Bond Street, Sydney also.
A sheriff had attempted a document service for us at the
George Street and Bond Street, Sydney addresses given by
ASIC documents and papers, that we had for the debtor but to
find non existent business locations upon there inspections.
They did say in there report that it appeared that the
debtor could have been operating out of a business close by,
at the George Street, Sydney address.
I ran some more electronic searches to find that there was a
private investigation firm operating a business from the
address that the sheriff claimed to be the suspected
debtor’s business address 1803 George Street, Sydney.
I planed to remain unknown by physical appearance and to
have a private investigator that was known to me attempt to
get an appointment for an employment interview with the
private investigation firm that was operating from the
address that the sheriff had visited, to obtain some work
with the private investigation business that was operating
from 1803 George Street, Sydney.
All went well. The private investigator had made the
appointment at the address via the phone number I had
supplied to him, returning to me with the information
required a few days later.
The private investigator had found information, letterheads
and posters from the business every where in the office that
was directly associated with the only shareholder of the
company (the unscrupulous private investigator) that I was
pursuing for my client for the $1000.00c defrauded amount.
As it was stated on the ASIC company extract, the debtor’s
principal place of business was at address 1804 George
Street, Sydney which we found to be a non existent business
address, as did the sheriff, as just close by there was the
private investigation business operating from 1803 George
Street, Sydney.
A couple of phone calls to the business didn’t lead us any
closer to the debtor as the person who answered the
telephone said “oh that agent (the only shareholder of the
debtor company, the unscrupulous private investigator) is
overseas at the moment and he comes backwards and forwards
from overseas quite regularly.” So I knew that I was on the
right track. A typical cover up from the private
investigation business
indeed.
The client and I were annoyed as we were following the
correct procedures with the document service process. The
false address of the private investigation training business
and the cover up for the debtor, trading from a false
business address, was very unethical. Not to mention the
false address that the private investigation training
company was operating from, was also occupied by the private
investigation
business, which’s trading address was advertised at 1803
George Street, Sydney in the current Yellow Pages Online.
The private investigation business address was a currently
registered business address with the Department of Fair
Trading listed address as Elisabeth Street, Sydney. Mind you
the debtor (the unscrupulous private investigator) was also
trading from the current Yellow Pages Online, from Bond
Street, Sydney and that building was non existent also.
So I thought some more about this matter and had decided to
write a letter to ASIC with information about the debtor,
not having a correct address for his principal place of
business on his company documents. ASIC informed me in
writing that they would investigate the matter and that they
may need my assistance at a later date. They thanked me for
my report.
I kept running regular electronic searches for months on the
debtor and finally his address for his principal place of
business had been registered at his old secured living
address, that had been confirmed where he had been living by
his landlord earlier. Then after continually watching the
ASIC business search records for months on end, hoping to
find the debtor operating in other building addresses, I had
noticed the debtors business registration was on a strike
out status with ASIC. I didn’t really wonder why too much
and I thought the defrauded $1,000.00c was lost. A month
down the track the company was deregistered from being a
proprietary limited company.
The investigation work that was performed on the task was
well worth the result with no charge to our client. With
continued efforts we revealed that the only shareholder of
the private investigation training company may have been the
director of the company acting as the director under a false
identity.
Tonight as I make this entry of record, the private
investigation business that has also been trading from false
addresses, has had there business names removed twice from
Department of Fair Tradings business register. They still
have one name registered, that I can see. I wonder how long
it will be till they register another similar business name
for their next move. On the Run
Author_Name: Peter
Lynch
Email_Address:
peterlynch@pjlinvestigations.com.au
Website:
www.pjlinvestigations.com.au |
|
