faux accountant stole thousands and thousands to fund his extravagant way of life

“We hereby confirm that Lepa Sanna has never attended or received treatment from the Central Coast Local Health District Mental Health Services,” the NSW Health Department later confirmed.

The one that “witnessed” Sanna’s signature on the false affidavit about her “terrible illness” has supplied a statutory declaration saying he didn’t witness her signature and that his personal signature was solid.

“My efforts to bring attention to the frauds perpetrated by Dimitriou have been dismissed at every turn,” mentioned Sanna.

Sue Arnott mentioned her life had been divided into “before and after eviction day”, recounting the Sunday morning in October 2013 when removalists arrived at her Brisbane home.

A bailiff handed her court docket orders, and her home was then stuffed with a minimum of a dozen males packing and eradicating every little thing she owned.

“I couldn’t speak because my voice would break to cry … eventually the bailiff said I’d better pack a suitcase and find somewhere to go,” she mentioned.

Arnott, a divorced mom of two teenage youngsters, was incomes underneath $20,000 per 12 months. She had supplied her home as safety for a mortgage her brother was in search of.

In 2011, Dimitriou solid her signature and ready false tax returns claiming she earned $222,085 per 12 months to acquire a million-dollar mortgage from ANZ.

Arnott was additionally used as a director on a number of firms managed by Dimitriou which obtained different enterprise loans. Those firms have been additionally used to sting different Dimitriou shoppers.

In 2013, because the ANZ was pressuring her on her mortgage defaults, Arnott went into the financial institution’s Crows Nest department to ask for an inventory of all her accounts.

“I was printed out a slip by the teller and I nearly died … I was like, ‘these are mine?’” Arnott later instructed a decide in regards to the loans in numerous firm names linked to her.

The fallout from her dealings with Dimitriou has been a “gut-wrenching nightmare that’s never ended”.

“He’s a con artist and he’s good at it,” mentioned one other sufferer, Helen Zaurrini, who was attempting to not cry as she recounted the stress of her household’s monetary smash after Dimitriou defrauded them of $2.6 million.

Physiotherapist Kathy Leishman mentioned it was “soul-destroying” to have her Newcastle dwelling repossessed after having been launched to Dimitriou by an area solicitor in 2014, when her husband Mark’s enterprise was experiencing cash-flow difficulties.

“We used to be upstanding members of the community, and we were respected, and all of a sudden we’ve been kicked out of our house … There are no words really,” Kathy Leishman mentioned.

Mark Leishman mentioned when the price of litigation and lack of the household dwelling was added, the monetary loss brought on by Dimitriou was “well over $4 million”.

In 2016, a Supreme Court decide discovered that “Dimitriou or someone at his direction manipulated the signatures on … mortgage documents to make it appear that [Kathy Leishman] and Mark Leishman signed them when they had not.”

Although Dimitriou’s fraudulent behaviour had been raised in quite a few court docket instances, it wasn’t till 2023 that he was lastly jailed. But it wasn’t for stealing thousands and thousands of {dollars} from his shoppers.

Instead, Dimitriou is serving his non-parole interval of two years and three months in a minimal safety jail in Emu Plains for defrauding the ANZ financial institution of virtually $2 million regarding Sue Arnott’s loans.

Adding to the frustration and anger of the fraudster’s quite a few victims, whose life financial savings Dimitriou plundered, is that they allege he was assisted in his internet of deceit by ANZ Chatswood’s then-loans supervisor, David Wayne Winiata, 45.

At Dimitriou’s trial, Winiata confessed that as loans supervisor, he’d solid Arnott’s signature on a mortgage utility dated February 10, 2012. Judge Pauline David discovered that Winiata had additionally solid Arnott’s signature on a mortgage doc in January 2012.

Winiata mentioned that Dimitriou was the supply of many consumer referrals and that they spoke “three or four times a day about all different types of … customers that we’ve got things going with”.

The court docket additionally heard that Winiata’s then-wife, Terri Dawson, was additionally “implicated in aspects of the deception”. She was inspired by her husband and Dimitriou to develop into a mortgage dealer and, at one stage, listed her enterprise tackle as Dimitriou’s workplace.

The February mortgage doc, on which Winiata solid Arnott’s signature, additionally falsely refers to an interview occurring between his spouse and Arnott.

Arnott was in a position to show she was in Brisbane – not Sydney – on the time Dawson claimed to have interviewed her.

Dawson later admitted in court docket that she had by no means met Arnott or spoken to her.

In her September 2023 judgment, the decide mentioned, “I accept that both Mr Winiata and Ms Dawson were, to some extent, possibly involved in the alleged crime. However, I do not find that the forgeries and any associated lies told by Mr Winiata about them have the effect of extricating the accused [Dimitriou] in relation to the documents in question here.”

Dawson, 47, was convicted in 2019 of dishonestly acquiring a monetary benefit by deception in relation to the matter. She was sentenced to a two-year neighborhood correction order.

In a 2014 attraction court docket matter relating to a different Dimitriou mortgage, proof was given about an e mail change between Dimitriou and Winiata on December 31, 2011, wherein Dimitriou refers to “3%” of the “total lend amount” being cut up between Winiata and himself.

Later in the identical judgment, it was famous by the decide, “I am satisfied … that there is at least an arguable case that the Bank, through Mr Waniata (sic) was aware of circumstances that would cause an honest and reasonable person to make further enquiries … and that the Bank, through Mr Waniata wilfully and recklessly failed to make such enquiries.”

Despite being stood down with out pay throughout a 2012 investigation, it’s understood Winiata was by no means sacked by ANZ. He left in 2015 and, for the following two years, labored as a relationship supervisor for the Commonwealth Bank. Winiata is at the moment a supervisor with Cricket NSW.

Comment was sought from Winiata.

In response to questions on what motion the financial institution had taken over Winiata, an ANZ spokesperson mentioned: “We take appropriate action, including dismissal and referring to police for criminal investigation.”

Pressed whether or not the financial institution did any of these items in relation to Winiata, the spokesperson replied: “We won’t comment on individual employees, I am afraid.”

The assertion additionally mentioned that on the time, “ANZ worked with a number of customers to resolve individual matters”.

The Herald has obtained different written complaints to the ANZ about Winiata and Dimitriou.

In August 2011, John and Joan Miller – not their actual names – have been shocked to seek out $1500 had been withdrawn from their account for a property valuation. “We have not authorised a valuation and we believe the $1500 has been withdrawn from our account fraudulently,” they complained to the financial institution.

John Miller instructed the Herald neighbours had prompt he speak to Dimitriou a couple of mortgage. Feeling uneasy about Dimitriou’s pitch, John Miller declined to go forward with a mortgage utility.

The Millers have been due to this fact shocked in regards to the unauthorised fee of $1500 for a property valuation for use for a proposed mortgage. When they complained, they have been instructed that “David [Winiata] was our business manager and he did the voucher for $1500”. John Miller insisted that his signature had been solid and that he had not made a mortgage utility or supplied authorisation to conduct a valuation on his dwelling.

But the ANZ fobbed them off. The financial institution’s space supervisor despatched an e mail on August 23, 2011, saying that John Miller had met Winiata and Dimitriou on the latter’s Bella Vista workplace on February 2. “Both David and George can testify that it was [Mr Miller] who attended the meeting and signed the relevant documents,” the e-mail mentioned.

The Millers continued to protest. Joan Miller mentioned she drove the financial institution to “distraction” till they obtained their a refund.

Mr M, a Melbourne businessman who requested to not be named, was launched to Dimitriou in 2011 after one among his associates really useful Dimitriou, saying he was an “absolute genius” at getting loans.

Using two unencumbered residential properties within the Melbourne suburb of Bentleigh, which have been valued at round $3 million, Dimitriou used Winiata on the ANZ financial institution in Chatswood to organise a collection of loans totalling $2.35 million.

Mr M was notified that the loans had been authorised.

However, after he didn’t hear from the financial institution about when the borrowed funds would arrive within the household firm’s account, Mr M began to fret.

Dimitriou instructed him they have been “busy with lots of clients” and that “as soon as he knew he would let me know”.

“Months go by – nothing,” Mr M instructed the Herald.

Mr M mentioned in an affidavit tendered in court docket that at one stage he virtually obtained right into a fist combat at a household occasion over the lacking cash.

Finally, Mr M went to his native ANZ financial institution in Melbourne. He was knowledgeable that the mortgage funds had gone into the corporate’s account after which straight out once more into accounts related to Dimitriou.

Mr M chased Dimitriou for the return of his cash. In 2015, he went to the police and was put onto a detective from the NSW Fraud Squad who, after listening to Mr M’s story, mentioned: “You too?” and mentioned there have been loads of others.

Mr M mentioned he did three stories for the police and nothing ever occurred. He mentioned the ANZ department claimed they couldn’t discover the paperwork to see who had authorised the switch of his cash to Dimitriou.

One of the properties was forfeited as Mr M and his household couldn’t sustain the curiosity funds on the mortgage that Dimitriou had obtained.

Dimitriou’s luck lastly ran out in 2019 when he declared chapter. There had been two earlier makes an attempt to bankrupt him and Revenue NSW had been chasing his firms over 276 unpaid visitors fines totalling $301,213.

Another of his firms was later wound up owing $1.6 million to the Australian Tax Office.

Sue Arnott and her firm efficiently sued Dimitriou for nearly $2 million. Rather than pay, Dimitriou declared himself bankrupt, claiming he had solely $3 to his title.

“The Bankrupt has disclosed that he is currently employed as a clerk and earns an annual income of $38,400 per annum,” his preliminary trustee reported to his collectors in late 2019.

His Lamborghini and Maserati had vanished, as had the thousands and thousands of {dollars} he’d stolen from shoppers.

Bankruptcies are discharged after three years, however in Dimitriou’s case, his chapter has been prolonged till 2027 for numerous causes, together with that he “intentionally provided false or misleading Information” to his trustee and that he didn’t disclose his curiosity in sure belongings.

When the Herald checked the residential tackle Dimitriou listed on his chapter paperwork, it turned out to be a lodge storage in Zetland.

Days earlier than declaring he was bancrupt, the fraudster is alleged to have used Sydney solicitor Hector Ekes, who’d beforehand been suspended for misconduct for 5 years, to assist him backdate paperwork to switch his belongings to an affiliate, who can also be a former bankrupt.

Before becoming a member of forces with Dimitriou, Ekes had acted for a number of of Dimitrou’s shoppers who have been suing Dimitriou. One by one, they filed skilled negligence actions in opposition to him.

In 2020, Ekes handed in his practising certificates and the NSW Law Society took management of Ekes’ regulation agency attributable to quite a few complaints by shoppers, together with for misconduct, negligence and presumably fraud.

Ekes, 49 was final seen alive on September 17, final 12 months. His physique was found two days later in premises above a pawn store on William Street, Darlinghurst. According to the Coroner’s workplace, the reason for dying was “chronic alcohol abuse”.

At the time of Ekes’ dying, he was serving a 20-month sentence by the use of a neighborhood corrections order for repeated drink-driving offences and driving whereas suspended.

For years, Ekes’ former shoppers Mark and Kathy Leishman have been attempting to make a declare in opposition to Ekes underneath LawCowl’s constancy fund. But they’ve been frequently pissed off by the Law Society’s failure to launch their recordsdata, which the society had taken from Ekes’s workplace. The Newcastle couple just lately obtained an e mail from the Law Society saying, “You are able to inspect the boxes of files at Grace Storage at Campbelltown. There is a cost of facilitating such inspection of $597.60. If the boxes were transported to the Law Society in Phillip Street, there is a cost of $861.80.”

In an announcement to the Herald, the Law Society mentioned, “We are presently liaising with former clients that have contacted the Law Society regarding retrieval and inspection of documents” and that the Law Society “acts to protect clients of legal practices, by taking appropriate action under the Legal Profession Uniform Law and Rules”.

“We were the roadkill in all this,” mentioned Mark Leishman. “The police have let us down, the Law Society has let us down.”

Start the day with a abstract of the day’s most essential and attention-grabbing tales, evaluation and insights. Sign up for our Morning Edition e-newsletter.