The Con Man, his Lawyer and the “Father Christmas” Bank.
I grew up in the 50s and 60s in a small country town 25 miles north of Melbourne. My father had left home and our rented house was a Cobb and Co halfway house built during the 1840s. The back wall was literally falling off the house, there was no internal plumbing, no electricity, and mum closed her bedroom window by sliding a wardrobe in front of the hole where the window should have been. The community was very small, mainly soldier settlers but they were all decent hard working folk. When things were tougher than usual for my family, the owner of the local general store would say “I have some tins of food here and the labels have fallen off”. He would then give them to us, saying he couldn’t sell them, which was his way of maintaining my mother’s dignity. I thought crooks were people with masks and guns. I had no idea they wore suits or silk gowns and wigs.
I worked very hard, sometimes four jobs at once, and eventually purchased a run down service station at Whittlesea. I built it up by providing credit to the local battlers and never once demanded payment of overdue accounts and these battlers never let me down. The service station became very successful and I attracted the local gentry, the doctors, the dentists, etc. One of these was Kenneth Raymond Buchanan, Justice of the Peace, President of the Shire of Whittlesea, President of the Parents and Teachers Association, wealthy property developer, and in everything there was to be in. From time to time Buchanan’s bill would get a bit long in the tooth but this didn’t worry me.
Then one day he said, why not convert this debt into equity and buy a couple of blocks of land from me. I thought this sounded OK so he drove me in his new 450SEL Mercedes to his mansion and took me into his plan room which had plans of his numerous subdivisions on the walls and on special hangers. He said, the way I do my subdivisions is to sell a couple of blocks cheaply off the plan and then use that money to build the roads and by doing this they are self financing. I didn’t imagine for a second that selling the lots like this was illegal. He also explained that he financed these purchases by getting a deposit only on a terms contract and that he then assigned those contracts to the bank. This way he got paid straight away even though only a deposit had been paid. I thought this was very clever and agreed to buy two blocks on the Tylden Rd subdivision at Kyneton. I paid $500 deposit on that day, 18th October 1979,
A couple of days later Buchanan said, how would you like to buy the entire subdivision and I will teach you property development. I felt privileged that he was prepared to take me under his wing. I agreed. A couple of days later he came to me with contracts which had been prepared by Palmer Stevens & Rennick (PS&R) and said, “sign these and I will have my solicitor do all the work and it won’t cost you anything in legal fees”. I refused this offer because I was quite friendly with my own solicitor and said that I would take the contract to him. With the benefit of hindsight I now realise that Buchanan was extraordinarily insistent that I use his solicitor. The purchase price was $165,000, I paid Buchanan the further $16,000 deposit on 27th October 1979 and took the contract to my own solicitor.
A day or so later, Buchanan came to me and said, “it would be better if we did not proceed with the sale at this time because the subdivision is going through the titles office and a change of ownership would hold things up”. He said that he had another subdivision called Woodleigh Heights and that I should buy a few blocks there instead and I could purchase some of the Tylden Rd lots if I wished after the subdivision had gone through the Titles Office. I agreed to this and I told my solicitor of the changes and to stop work on the Tylden Rd contract. Buchanan took me to Kyneton and we selected 10 random lots on the Woodleigh Heights subdivision.
A few days later, Buchanan came to my home with the new contract for the Woodleigh Heights land and again suggested that I use PS&R and he would carry the legal costs. This time I agreed and signed both of the contracts which he took to PS&R. The purchase price was $145,000, with a depsosit of $20,000. The $16,500 which I had already paid him together with an adjustment to his account at my service station represented the depsosit. Buchanan took both copies of the contract to PS&R.
A couple of days later, I received a Notice of Assignment in the mail from General Credits Limited.(“GCL”) He had assigned the Woodleigh Heights contract to GCL and he was effectively paid out. The contract was then between GCL and myself.
Just after Christmas, in early 1980, Buchanan came to my service station with a letter that my solicitor had sent him. This letter said that he did not own the Tylden Rd land and must be purchasing it under a terms contract, and that he needed to take title before he could sell it to me. It appeared that my solicitor had initiated a title search before I told him that I was not going ahead with the Tylden Rd contract. Buchanan was indignant and said that my solicitor had got it wrong, and that he did own the land. He took me to Kyneton and introduced me to Graeme Bolton, the principal of PS&R, and also took me to the Council offices where he spoke with the Shire Secretary Mr. Stan Porter about the subdivision. It was clear that he did own the land and my solicitor must have been mistaken.
Some seven or eight months later, Buchanan said that he wished to develop a retirement village on the Woodleigh Heights subdivision and he wanted to repurchase the Woodleigh Heights lots which I had purchased. He also said that the Tylden Rd subdivision was now through the titles office and he had sold two of the allotments to raise the money to construct the roads and lay the water mains however he had to provide bank guarantees to the Council and Water Authority until he had actually constructed these things.
Buchanan proposed that I purchase the remainder of the Tylden Rd land he would then repurchase the Woodleigh Heights land from me. He also asked that I put up the Bank Guarantees which the Council and Water Authority required. I agreed to this proposal. Buchanan said that he would arrange all the necessary financing.
The Tylden Rd subdivision consisted of two parts, an industrial section consisting of 6 industrial allotments and a residential portion consisting of 18 residential allotments. Buxhanan arranged that the CBA Bank (now Westpac) would provide the Bank Guarantees and finance part of my purchase of the residential allotments and PS&R would finance the remainder of the residential allotments.
Buchanan then took me to the Thomastown branch of the a bank where I met the manager whom Buchanan called “Father Christmas” because he apparently granted Buchanan’s wishes. At that time I banked with the State Savings Bank of Victoria. The manager had all the necessary documentation already prepared, including business plans, and he claimed to have personally valued the property.
The valuation by the manager was on the basis that the inustrial land had been subdivided into six industrial allotments.
The bank took a $47,000 mortgage over the Industrial portion and the land was transferred into my name. I additionally provided a second mortgage over my house and the bank also provided the Bank Guarantees which were required by the Council and Water Authority. The Contract of Sale was signed on the same day and in the office of the bank manager..
Buchanan then took me to PS&R. Like the bank manger, Graeme Bolton of PS&R also had all the documentation prepared in relation to the residential allotments. Buchanan had aleady sold two of the residential allotments and he retained a third so as to sell it as well for the purpose of rasing the cash for the roads and water mains. I therefore purchased 15 of the 18 residential allotments with a Mortgage over some to the CBA and some to PS&R Nominees, the mortgage arm of PS&R. [full details on the Crooks – Double Dealing part 2 page]
Shortly afterwards I learned that Buchanan was in fact planning a timeshare resort on the Woodleigh Heights Subdivision. I also learned that Lot 28 of the Woodleigh Heights land was essential to the first stage of the proposed timeshare development. Lot 28 was one of the allotments which I had purchased so in my mind I was assured that he would repurchase the Woodleigh Heights land as promised.
The timeshare company Woodleigh Heights Resort Developments Pty. Ltd. (“WHRD”) was incorporated on 10th March 1981.
Time went on and Buchanan had neither repurchased the Woodleigh Heights land or constructed the roads and water mains on the Tylden Rd land. By about May of 1981, because he had so far failed to repurchase the Woodleigh Heights land or construct the roads my relationship with Buchanan began to sour.
In about August 1981 Buchanan wished to repurchase lot 28 alone, I refused to sell to him unless he also enter into firm contracts to repurchase the rest of the Woodleigh Heights allotments as promised.
The Woodleigh Heights contract which was asigned to GCL was to fall due in November 1981 so I applied to GCL for refinance to pay out the contract. This application dragged on past the due date without being either approved or rejected and with no explanation for the delay.
On 1st December 1981 Buchanan signed an option to purchase all of my Woodleigh Heights allotments, including lot 28, from me for $30,000 each.
By this time GCL had become a financier for WHRD and was intimately aware of the development of the timeshare resort and that my lot 28 was required for the first stage. GCL then indicated that it would approve refinance secured by the nine lots other than Lot 28 thereby leaving me free to sell Lot 28 to Buchanan for the purpose of the first stage and provding me with extra working capital to service the loan. I made fresh application on that basis.
On 26th January 1982 GCL finally aproved the refinance which was secured by the remaining 9 lots other than lot 28 thereby leaving lot 28 to be purchased by Buchanan so long as he also entered contracts to purchase the other nine lots. This approved loan however did not settle because GCL claimed problems with their paperwork finalised, of particular note, during the dealy, one employee let slip that a title was missing from the securities envelope however this did not give me cause for concern at that stage.
In March/April 1982 Buchanan went on a holiday to Japan. While Buchanan was away a Mr. C.K. Lim walked into the office of WHRD and offered to sell Lot 10 of the Woodleigh Heights subdivision to WHRD. Normally with Buchanan present PS&R would have handled the purchase from LIM but because Buchanan was away a director of WHRD, Mr. Ken Faulkner, who was also a solicitor began to handle the purchase, upon searching the title he discovered that although Lim had been led to believe that he had purchased Lot 10 it in fact remained subject to the contract to me as assigned to GCL, in addition Mr. Faulkner discovered that Lot 28 was subject to the contract of sale to me but WHRD had purchased Lot 28 in August 1981 and had taken title to it and PS&R had handled and acted for WHRD in that sale. [see double dealin part 1]
Ken Faulkner referred these facts to me and when Buchanan arrived home I confronted him with these facts but treated it as a mistake which needed recitfication. Buchanan aranged to meet me at the office of Bill Maclean the manager of GCL Reservoir branch. At that meeting GCL and Buchanan had a number of documents prepared for me to sign. I refused to sign them as they appeared intended to make me party to what I perceived as illegal, perhaps fraudulent, transactions. The documents included back-dated documents.
I engaged a solicitor to act for me in relation to these things however after just a couple of meeting with barristers I ran out of cash and could not pay their accounts. The solcitor held my documents in escrow as security for his fees. I was in a hopeless situation.
I also confronted Graeme Bolton of Palmer Stevens & Rennick and I advised he and Buchanan that I would refer their dealings to the Police. In reply Buchanan threatened both violence and bankruptcy. With the assistance of the Council and Water Authority he and PS&R put the bankruptcy threat into motion. [see coordinated fraud]
After the coordinated fraud was put into motion I went to see my original solicitor about selling some of the Tylden Rd land. He did did a new title search and at that time, 1983, my solicitor Mr. Danny Ginsburgh told me of Buchanan’s attempts to avoid section 9 of the Sale of Land Act 1962. [see avoiding section 9 ]. At that time I had no idea of the complicity of the Council and Water Authority in these things and at that time I wrongly understood that Buchanan had in fact avoided the provisions of section 9 of the Sale of Land Act 1962.
My original solicitor also gave me copies of documents from the initial file where in September 1979 I had engaged the firm to handle the purchase of the whole of the Tylden Rd land from Buchanan. Included in these documents was a copy of the title search dated 27th November 1979 which clearly showed that Buchanan did not own the Tylden Rd land when he initially purported to sell it to me by terms contract on about 18th October 1979. Also included was the file copy of the letter which my solicitor had sent to Buchanan saying that he did not own the land. My solicitor was right after all!
I then conducted further personal research and discovered the things now set out on the crooks part two page of this website.