EXCLUSIVE
A man who avoided jail time after defrauding Australians out of $58,000 in an elaborate rental scam has been sacked from his job as a strata manager.
Last month, news.com.au reported that Sydney-based Scott Jeffries pleaded guilty to 22 counts of fraud after pretending to run rental inspections at properties he did not own, and taking deposit money off 20 victims over a period of 18 months.
One of the victims news.com.au spoke to, 20-year-old tradie Ethan Hanna, was ripped off $2900, which cleaned out all his life savings and also left him in debt to his brother, forcing him to move back in with his parents.
At Parramatta Court in March, the sentencing magistrate called Mr Jeffries’ behaviour “quite insidious” and “very exploitative”, especially in a housing crisis, and sentenced him to two years and six months of an intensive corrections order which includes 300 hours of community service.
A resident at one of the strata blocks that he manages through a company called Civium Strata was appalled to learn of his criminality, and reached out to the company’s general manager to voice her concerns.
Mr Jeffries, 35, was swiftly terminated from his job.
The resident told news.com.au “I asked (Civium Strata) why they are employing criminals.” “Especially whereby they’re in a role with access to personal information,” they added.
“I don’t want this bloke managing our complex or have anything to do with him. And – as you reported – he has a history.”
Indeed, this is not the first time Mr Jeffries has been caught out for dishonest behaviour.
“Your criminal record does contain a few dishonesty related matters but it is a limited record,” the magistrate noted in his most recent court proceeding.
In 2015, Mr Jeffries was convicted of shoplifting items valued at less than $2000 and was fined $375.
Then in 2021, he was convicted of larceny and shoplifting again, and was fined $250 and $1500 respectively.
In early February 2022 – just as he began his rental scam – Mr Jeffries was found to have dishonestly obtained property by deception and was ordered to pay a $1500 fine.
A Civium Strata spokesperson told news.com.au “Scott Jeffries no longer works at Civium”.
“As soon as we became aware of his conviction we took immediate action and terminated his employment,” they added.
The company would not say how many properties Mr Jeffries had managed while he was employed through Civium Strata.
Jayden Murdoch, from Sydney Criminal Lawyers, relayed to news.com.au on behalf of his client Mr Jeffries “I’m deeply remorseful for the conduct that brought me to the attention of the courts.
“I am highly motivated to make the reparations back the victims, and I want to move on from this dark chapter in my life.”
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Police said the rental bond scam was played out from February 2022 until October last year, for premises at Liverpool, Wentworthville, Auburn, Parramatta and Bondi.
The total proceeds of the crime was $58,000.
NSW Police arrested Mr Jeffries, 35, in connection to the scam at the end of last year.
Mr Jeffries was charged with 34 offences including publish false misleading material to obtain advantage, dishonestly obtain financial advantage by deception, knowingly deal with proceeds of crime, deal with identity info to commit indictable offence, and possess identity info to commit etc indictable offence. He pleaded guilty to 22 of them — 20 counts of dishonestly obtain financial advantage by deception and two counts of deal with property proceeds of a crime less than $100,000.
He was sentenced to two and a half years on an intensive corrections order on Wednesday afternoon. That means if he follows strict rules he won’t see the inside of a prison cell.
Alcoholism and a gambling addiction were given as motivations for Mr Jeffries perpetrating the rental scam. He has since abstained from both, the court was told in the sentencing proceedings.
In May last year, Ethan Hanna, then 19, was renting in a share house but wanted to move into his own place and thought he had hit the jackpot when he saw an advertisem*nt on Facebook for an apartment.
The young tradie inspected the two-bedroom property in South Wentworthville, in Sydney’s west, and was happy with what he saw, especially as it was only for $450 a week and was fully furnished.
But the reason it was fully furnished turned out to be because the place was available for short-term accommodation on Booking.com, and Mr Jeffries had rented it out to carry out his fraud.
Four days later Mr Hanna transferred $2900 over to secure the apartment, which was two weeks’ rent and the bond money.
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He had $2000 in savings and had to borrow the remaining $900 from his brother.
“It left me with no money so I had to move back in with my father,” he lamented.
alex.turner-cohen@news.com.au
Read related topics:Sydney
