A Coordinated Fraud
The conspiracy and fraud carried out by the Council and Water Authority were accomplished by sequence of coordinated and cooperative lies and deception over a 30 year period until now. The lies and deception by the Council would have been exposed but for the coordinated lies and deception of the Water Authority and vice versa. In addition the fraud also required the cooperation and coordination of solicitors Palmer Stevens and Rennick and developer Kenneth Raymond Buchanan who had their own agenda and purpose for the fraud. Similarly the fraud also required the cooperation and coordination of Woodleigh Heights Resort Developments Pty. Ltd. (WHRD) which had its own agenda.
Finally the lies and deception of all would have been exposed but for the lies and deception of the lawyers which I say, having regard to the evidence in this website, continues to the present day. .
These things did not happen or coordinate by accident.
Firstly, it must be understood that the Council and Water Authority were related bodies and by law a number of Councillors were also commissioners of the Water Authority. The Secretary to both the Council and Water Authority was one and the same person.
Secondly, Palmer Stevens and Rennick (PS&R) acted as solicitors for the Council, the Water Authority, Kenneth Raymond Buchanan and WHRD. In addition PS&R Nominees, the finance arm of Palmer Stevens & Rennick were financiers to both Buchanan and WHRD.
The Council had sealed the plans of subdivision for Tylden Rd and Woodleigh Heights without the services being completed. We can assume these plans were sealed in the expectation that Buchanan would complete the services once he had raised some cash after unlawfully selling some of the lots. However things did not go quite according to plan. Buchanan sold a number of lots on both subdivisions but did not complete the services. He instead embarked on the Woodleigh Heights timeshare scheme. Once again the Council provided assistance to Buchanan by issuing a new planning permit for the timeshare resort at Woodleigh Heights on the "proviso" that all the lots become owned by the timeshare company.
This "proviso" suited the purposes of PS&R and Buchanan who had to conceal that they were crooks who had been double dealing in land. It also suited the purpose of WHRD who needed my land for the timeshare resort to proceed.
Knowing that the water supply which had been approved in 1978 as part of the original planning permit for the Woodleigh Heights subdivision didn't exist, they had to come up with a water supply. Initially Buchanan applied for a water supply from the Water Authority on behalf of the body corporate, however this was soon changed to become an agreement with WHRD. This suited everybody because it was a convenient contingency tool to ensure the "proviso" was enforced.
Graeme Bolton of PS&R drew up the unlawful "Water Supply Agreement" and each and every party knew it to be unlawful. However again things did not go quite according to plan because I learned of the double dealings. I told PS&R and Buchanan that I would report them to the police and that I would not deal with them any further and I would not sell my Woodleigh Heights land to Buchanan. In reply Buchanan threatened me with violence and bankruptcy.
Buchanan sets the dogs on me...
About two weeks after Buchanan's threat, the Council wrote to me and said that it considered that the waterworks and roads in the Tylden Rd subdivision should be constructed forthwith. It said that other owners had inquired when the works would be completed. This was a lie. The other owners later gave evidence in the Magistrates Court that they had not "inquired".
About three weeks later the Water Authority also wrote to me and stated that the water works at Tylden Rd should be constructed forthwith and, if the works were not done, it would require the lodgement of $11,000 in cash and do the works itself.
At the time of making these demands, both the Council and Water Authority knew full well that their demands were unlawful and there was no lawful means of forcing me to do the works. In the case of the Water Authority, there was not even a lawful means of them doing the works themselves, as at that time the Tylden Rd land was outside the Urban district and there was no water agreement in place.
These demands by the Council and Water Authority were not only unlawful, but were coordinated in such a way as to apply financial pressure calculated to force me to sell my Woodleigh Heights land to Buchanan. It is not plausible to believe that two authorities would both act unlawfully in such a coordinated manner except for ulterior motive. (That the Council & Water Authority acted at the behest of Buchanan and/or PS&R is to be implied from the foregoing and the other facts and circumstances set out on this website.)
I was forced to sell the Tylden Rd land at a substantial loss, however I retained the Woodleigh Heights land. Then came the second coordinated onslaught.
In 1983, WHRD entered into contract to buy my land but defaulted on those contracts. When I said that I would simply sell elsewhere, WHRD said that if I tried to sell to anyone else, they would have my water rights removed and render my land worthless. Plainly this was not a threat which WHRD could carry out, this threat was made by WHRD with complete confidence that the Council and Water Authority would give effect to that threat. I checked with the Secretary to both the Council and Water Authority and I was told that there was a private water supply agreement between the Water Authority and I could not have water except with the agreement of WHRD.
I got legal advice and was told that the best thing to do was to simply force WHRD to pay up under the contracts of sale. I therefore issued Supreme Court proceedings to do just that.
This land will not be sold to anyone except WHRD - sabotage part 1...
In the meantime my mortgagee AGC did not believe this water business and wanted its money. AGC decided to sell my land and engaged L.J. Hooker of Kyneton. L.J. Hooker arranged an auction for 17th November 1984 and erected 'For Sale' signs. The first thing which occurred was that the Managing Director of WHRD, in his capacity of Secretary for the Body Corporate, wrote to L.J. Hooker advising that signs were not permitted under the rules of the Body Corporate, despite the fact that WHRD had signs everywhere for their timeshare sales. AGC told WHRD that the signs would remain in place with police assistance if necessary. After AGC refused to remove the signs, they were removed/stolen so I reported it to the police.
After police intervention seemed likely to ensure the signs remained in place, the Water Authority stepped in. Four days before the scheduled auction date and five days after sealing a plan which extended the Urban District which would give my land an absolute right to water, the Water Authority wrote an unsolicited letter to L.J. Hooker advising that water was not available to my land. As a result of this, AGC cancelled the auction. [see bottom of first page]
The Council did its bit by concealing the fact that an approved water supply was a condition of the original planning permit and then represented that building permits were unavailable without a "reticulated water supply" available to my land.
Immediately after the auction was cancelled, WHRD offered to buy the land from AGC at a fraction of its worth. AGC knew this was a crooked deal and refused and set about trying to get answers from the Council and Water Authority regarding how to resolve the issue of water. ACG tried unsuccessfully over a period of some ten months to get satisfactory answers, and in the meantime the Water Authority engaged in shenanigans designed to avoid admitting that the land did have an entitlement to a "reticulated water supply".
Finally, in September 1985, my application to have WHRD honour their contracts to purchase the Woodleigh Heights land was heard by the Supreme Court. The judge became very interested when AGC gave evidence to the Court about what had been going on and WHRD quickly decided to settle. The proceeding was settled on the basis of the representations of the Water Authority that I could have water with the consent of WHRD and the Court ordered that WHRD consent to that supply and transfer the agreement to the Body Corporate. After the Court, I paid out AGC and immediately tried to sell the land myself. Then a new coordinated onslaught began.
This land will not be sold to anyone except WHRD - sabotage part 2...
Firstly WHRD stole my 'For Sale' signs. When this tactic was stopped by police intervention, the Council stepped in. It demanded my signs get pulled down because they did not have a planning permit. Then my local Member Mr. Max McDonald intervened on my behalf and ensured the signs stayed in place. So the Water Authority stepped in the very next day and said that my land did not have "town water" knowing full well that it had entitlement to the approved water supply required by the planning permit. Like AGC before me, I was forced to cancel the sale after a coordinated attack.
Then Max McDonald raised these things in Parliament and the Ministerial inquiries ensued and a new coordinated onslaught began. The lawyers lied in coordination with the Council, the Water Authority and WHRD. They lied to the Ministers, the Tribunal and the Magistrates, Supreme and County Courts as detailed in this website.
Each and every Councillor and Water Authority member was fully aware of what was going on and the damage it was causing my family and me. One lone Councillor said to me that he knew it was wrong, but he was bound by the majority position of the Council however the fact is he did not have the strength of character to stand up and be counted.
All that was required was for one Councillor or Water Authority member to stand up and say, "this is wrong". It has now been 25 years and no such person has appeared. The current Macedon Ranges Shire Councillors and Coliban Water members are the most recent to hold the line.......... |
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