“I COULDN’T GET MY HEAD AROUND HOW SOMEONE COULD BE SO VICIOUS.”

But she had no reason to be.

“Why wouldn’t I trust that his name is Max Tavita? Why wouldn’t I trust that he was an investment officer with the family office?”

There were three Bloomberg monitors set up in his flat that he was “constantly tinkering on, making trades”. She often overheard him having phone conversations about “trades”.

“There was so much that he created that was all fake to make me believe that he was an investment professional,” she says.

Among Max’s props were regular email updates sent out to his clients. Tracy read them and they reassured her she had made the right decision. After a tough few years, it felt like her life was falling into place. Then Max Tavita disappeared. The next time Tracy saw the man she had given her heart and all her money to, he was in the dock at the district court.

Hamish Earle McLaren was prosecuted for defrauding 15 victims, but Tracy was the only one who believed he was in love with her. None of Tracy’s money was invested. Some of it was used to

“meet the repayment demands” of the earlier victims he had swindled. Court documents show that Hamish was running a Ponzi scheme.

Tracy’s encounter with Hamish was financially devastating, but it was the emotional betrayal that was the hardest for her to reconcile.

“Getting my head around the fact that I had lived a fictitious life for the last 18 months, it felt so destabilising to me,” Tracy says. “Every glance, every comment, every touch, every conversation, every email, every text message, every photo ... Everything was a complete and utter lie, and that was so hard for me because I’ve never come across anyone like that before.”

She felt she could no longer trust herself. “I was flattened. I couldn’t get my head around how someone could be so vicious. The year following Hamish’s arrest I was a mess.”

The court process revealed a glimpse into Hamish’s mind. His brother-in-law Chris, who Tracy had met, gave a character reference for Hamish but admitted, under crossexamination, that Hamish lived in a fantasy world.

“A strange thing about him is that he will watch a James Bond movie and then will dress like James Bond – he will drive cars like what James Bond drives,” Chris told a psychologist in a report read to the district court.

After having his 16-year sentence reduced to 12 years on appeal, with a minimum of nine to serve, Hamish could be eligible for parole in July 2026. A total of $5.4 million remains unaccounted for. Hamish’s barrister, Gabriel Wendler, suggested it had gone “on lifestyle situations”.

For a long time, Tracy blamed herself for what happened. She wishes she’d been more critical but has come to accept that she was the victim of a crime – that she was groomed and that Hamish went to extraordinary lengths to deceive her.

As she points out, Max/Hamish didn’t even have a job. Conning people was his job. She just hopes that by sharing her story, others can learn from her experience.

“I was just unlucky to meet him,” she says. “I was unlucky enough to fall into his trap,. Ninety-nine per cent of people are amazing, so that’s what my mindset is.”