Ex-brothel boss made bankrupt

A FORMER brothel owner from the Gold Coast whose infamous uncle was portrayed in a series of the hit TV show Underbelly has been bankrupted.

John Dennis Trimble, 72, from Benowa, nephew of mafia crime boss “Aussie Bob” Trimbole, was officially bankrupted by an order of Federal Circuit Court judge Heather Riley on July 1 for failing to pay a receptionist at his Melbourne brothel $92,000.

Former licensed brothel receptionist Gabriella Rosa slapped Mr Trimble, her former employer, with a bankruptcy notice after Mr Trimble’s company Daily Planet Australia pressured Ms Rosa to give up her part-time job and make her a casual, and then dismissed her from her job when she wouldn’t agree.

In February 2016 the Federal Circuit Court in Melbourne ordered Daily Planet Australia pay Ms Rosa $92,411 for threatening to alter her employment arrangements and then dismissing her, and Mr Trimble was found to be jointly liable for the $92,411.

On July 4 this year, the Federal Circuit Court in Brisbane dismissed a second application to bankrupt Mr Trimble, made by his former lawyers in the Rosa case, Lennon Mazzeo.

The firm demanded payment of between $106,254 and $111,943 of allegedly unpaid legal fees.

Mr Trimble is the former owner of Melbourne brothel The Daily Planet, which closed last year after 44 years.

His uncle, Bob Trimbole, was portrayed in the TV series Underbelly: A Tale of Two Cities, and was described by a Royal Commission as a massive drug dealer in the 1970s and ‘80s. He is believed to have arranged the contract style killing of politician and anti-drugs campaigner Donald Mackay in 1977. Bob Trimbole was never charged and died in Spain in 1987.