Isaac: I paid TV doco star ‘Little Joe’ $457,000

Debt collector’s link to boss of Descon

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I work for the guys that have been ripped off. I’m a bit like Robin Hood Joseph El-azzi Orogins of a Debt Collector

A man known as “Australia’s most unorthodox debt collector” is director of a new construction company which has emerged in the wake of the collapse of the calamitous Descon and Adcon groups.

It’s also emerged he was paid hundreds of thousands of dollars by the director of the failed construction group.

Joseph El-azzi, known as Little Joe, is director of Optare, a company registered in February which claims to have worked on multiple infrastructure projects for the Victorian Government.

The projects shown on the Optare website, registered by Mr El Azzi, 41, included work at multiple Melbourne train stations including Parkville, CBD North, South Yarra, Anzac and A’beckett Street.

The same images appeared on the website for Danny Isaac’s Descon Group Australia, which was ordered into liquidation in Brisbane Supreme Court last week.

The projects were previously contracted to Mr Isaac’s Adcon companies, many of which are also in administration or liquidation under a mountain of debt.

Debts of the fallen group look likely to soar above $200 million, with subcontractors, lenders and taxpayers among the hordes of creditors.

Fair Work Australia records show Optare registered an enterprise agreement with the CFMEU Victoria in April.

The station project pages were removed from the Optare site after the Gold Coast Bulletin sent questions about the company to Mr Isaac.

In an affidavit sworn in Dubai on Monday as part of bankruptcy proceedings against him, Mr Isaac said he had paid more than $457,000 to Mr El Azzi for “consultation and business management, as well as for payment of outlays incurred in that role.”

Mr El Azzi, who was not a director of the Descon and Adcon groups, is the subject of a six-part documentary series, funded by Screen Australia, that chronicles his life as a debt collector in Western Sydney.

In the 2019 series, he describes being stabbed by drug dealers as a teen and threatened with guns, bats and death during the course of his colourful career. There’s no suggestion of any wrongdoing by Mr El Azzi in relation to the incidents or his work.

Mr El Azzi details a number of his unconventional methods of collecting debts from people, including from people in the building industry who have not paid subcontractors.

“I’ve seen everything, I’ve seen stuff that makes you lose your appetite,” he says in the doco.

“I don’t favour the bad guy - never have never will - I don’t work for bad guys.

“I always work for the guys that have been ripped off. I’m a bit like Robin Hood.”

Mr El Azzi said the debt collecting game was “all fun and games until actually I get hurt or someone pushes me”.

“They don’t scare me, these guys. They should be scared of me. I’m the guy hunting them. They’re the guys hiding from me.”

Optare is solely directed by Mr El Azzi and its shares are held by JDE Holdings, also directed by Mr El Azzi.

Mr Isaac’s lawyer Clint Kanther said the Bulletin’s questions were “unusual”.

“Our client has no contractual relationship with the other entities and is neither an officeholder or shareholder of the entities,” he said in an email. “We again will be contacting the named entities noting your line of inquiry so that appropriate legal action can be taken by them to protect their interests.”

The Bulletin has contacted Mr El Azzi for comment.