Still paying to put roof over family’s head
A GOLD Coast chef chasing the great Australian dream for his family faced a financial nightmare when he was snared in a dodgy first-home buyer scheme.
Adam Paenga of Tallai was one of 268 consumers taken for a ride by Burleigh Waters man Kent Paul Scarborough after he paid $6000 to put a roof over his family’s head.
“All I ever wanted was a house for my partner at the time, my two children and me,” he said.
“I’d been struggling to get a first-home deposit going.
“I got home from work one night, was on the internet and an ad popped up about basically no deposit or lowdeposit homes.”
Mr Paenga made weekly payments – but he may as well have tossed the cash into the wind: “They had the gift of the gab about what they were doing. I feel sad people have been taken advantage of, I don’t want it to happen to anyone else.”
Scarborough – who operated Brilliant Asset Management Pty Ltd and BAM Finance Pty Ltd (also trading as Noble and Cormack) – pleaded guilty in Southport Magistrates Court late last year to 27 counts of making false or misleading representations in breach of consumer law. The charges were dated over 12 months from March 2016.
Scarborough was slapped with a $50,000 fine and ordered to pay back $97,925 to victims including a disabled student, immigrants, a refugee and Centrelink recipients.
Ten months on, Mr Paenga says he is yet to receive a cent of the money he paid.
“I believe it’s gone to SPER (State Penalties Enforcement Registry). Chefs are the lowest-paid trade out there, so it was definitely a bit of a hit.”
In total, 27 consumers helped the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) investigate Scarborough, who ran a scheme leading consumers to believe they were making payments into a home deposit plan. Victims paid amounts of $110 to $10,700, the OFT said.
Those involved were given a certificate and told it was valued up to $40,000 and could be used to buy a home anywhere in Australia. But no bank or financial institution would accept the certificate.
Mr Paenga is speaking out to warn others that if a deal looks too good to be true, or alarm bells ring, it is better to ditch the deal or seek help. He said red flags included patchy communication over time and a lack of documentation.
“I started getting sus on it. I was ringing them up on a weekly basis and they weren’t getting back to me. “They basically made me believe, as the ad stated, only 50 people were eligible, so I’d better get on to it as soon as possible. I just didn’t want to miss the opportunity.” Mr Paenga was chasing answers when the OFT told him of their investigation. Magistrate Jane Bentley gave a scathing assessment of Scarborough’s actions in court: “Sadly, the people who paid you this money were the type of people who could least afford to lose their money.” OFT executive director Brian Bauer said the scheme specifically targeted susceptible consumers.
“The Office of Fair Trading will not stand for such unscrupulous exploitation and any traders with similar ideas should consider themselves on notice,” he said.