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NSW Parliament Questions and answers April 14, 1994
Page 725
*562 DOUGLAS GRAEME McCOY—Mr Amery asked the Minister for Consumer Affairs,
Minister Assisting the Minister for Roads and Minister Assisting the Minister
for Transport—
(1) How many complaints have been received by the
Department of Consumer Affairs concerning the operations of Douglas Graeme
McCoy and his group of companies?
(2) In what year were these complaints lodged?
(3) How many different company names were involved in these complaints?
(4) What are the names of the companies?
(5) What action has been taken?
(6) What is the result of these actions?
Answer—
(1) Mr Douglas Graeme McCoy personally, and his
group of companies, have generated a total of 48 formal complaints since 1985.
(2) Year No. of complaints
1985 9
1986 13
1987 2
1992 20
1993 3
1994 1
(3) Five different company names were involved in
these complaints.
(4) Doug McCoy Management Pty Ltd trading as Self Reliance.
Security Concepts International Pty Ltd.
Australian Security and Fire Systems (NSW) Pty Ltd.
IEC Crimewatch Pty Ltd.
Cost Cutter Coupons Pty Ltd.
(5) On 14 March 1986, Doug McCoy Management Pty Ltd
trading as Self Reliance was named in Parliament on the basis of serious
complaints from people misled by false claims of potential earnings and
encouraged to pay for security equipment to be used in sales demonstrations.
The company subsequently ceased trading in New South Wales.
In 1992, following receipt of complaints from people throughout Australia who
had paid Mr McCoy and his companies for distributorships of fire and security
equipment, the Department undertook an investigation in conjunction with the
Trade Practices Commission.
(6) Pursuant to provisions under the Trade Practices Act enabling enforcement
through the Federal Court, the Commission sought undertakings from Mr McCoy
intended to restrain him and his companies from unethical and unlawful trading
practices. Mr McCoy failed to provide the undertakings, however, the sale of
distributorships ceased.
The Department of Consumer Affairs has co-operated with the NSW Police Service
which has initiated criminal proceedings against Mr McCoy. These matters are
currently before the courts.
"Mr Foley was Hazzard's sleeping partner, or girlfriend
He's TRIED FIRST to extort $200,000 off me.
Hazzard said: "I know there is nothing we can do legally, BUT
if you don't pay Mrs Foley $200,000 I will mention you in Parliament.
Thanks for your interest.
__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
"Detective,
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED"
Mr McCoy, who says he earns over $11,000,000,000 (eleven million!) per year (but can't repay a $50k loan), should have some lessons in English expression,
and maybe some law text books would help also. He mentions some two
dollar lawyer in the USA, yet he is a close personal friend of
barrister John Foley. Why not use Foley to sue us? And since when does
one's personal name become copyrighted. What a pitiful joke for a
supposed sophisticated and successful businessman. The man is derranged
and paranoid. All he has to do to have his name removed is to repay his $50k loan plus interest to Mrs Ruth Rothery.
The
caveat had an email address on it which when my solicitor checked up on it was
registered to someone in San Francisco. USA. I later came across some
information which has led me to believe that he is actually registered in
Australia, as Michael Douglas McCoy and uses Douglas Graeme McCoy as a false
identity. His pension card is in the name of Michael Douglas.
Associates of McCoy's, or
should we say current co-conspirators, are pictured at the head of this
page. We make this point again as it is our firm belief that John
Foley, "Mr Goldfinger", sells his name and gives his recommendations to
McCoy's victims. His apparent wealth and his educated demeanour make
for an easy endorsement of the investments promoted by McCoy.
He even flashes a few gold bars he keeps in his Q1 apartment on the
Gold Coast. The man is a barrister, an Officer of the Courts. What a
disgrace! And he was a director of Forsythe Manufacturing at the time
that both Eleanor and Ruth were conned into the fatal investment.
Forsythe subsequently went bust ayway, so at the very least, all the
directors including Foley should answer to the allegation of trading
whilst insolvent.
Eleanor has been ruined, and Ruth has lost many hundred's of thousands of dollars to Forsythe and its gang of criminal directors and shareholders. Principal architects of the scam include all those who appear at the top of this page. As for McCoy and Foley, they were rewarded for their services by Forsythe with shares or directorships etc. See ASIC Company Extract.
"This
is from memory and is not to the dollar it is a big ask with no paperwork to
back it up
The
companies and directors that got ruths money
KK
Developments p/l Director Kelly We ave reason to believe that KK developments and Forsyth are owned by Clarence Boyd Nelson.
BL
Retirement living p/l Nelson The same Nelson as above.
to
the best of my knowledge this is where the money went
Rent
Factory Keysbough Victoria $100,000.00 plus Supposedly owned by Forsyth (John Alexander, Keith Kelly, Boyd Nelson)
Leases
on cars
$80,000.00 plus
Deposit
on land Beenleigh $50,000.00
plus
Buying
a second mortgage from a builder who had already lost the block to a first mort
gee
$85,000.00
Jim
$50,000.00 Jim Bogoevski, shares accomodation with Nelson
Nelson
$20,000.00 Clarence Boyd Nelson, Gold Coast Solicitor.
Kelly
$20,000.00
McCoy
Brokerage
$20,000.00
McCoy
borrowed
$60,000.00
LMC
Money borrowed went into kk Dev $60,000.00 Keith Kelly along with Nelson at the helm
Silver
chef equipment Victoria $80,0000.00
plus Forsythe
This
is to the best of my knowledge but a lot more cash went elsewhere at the
request of Jim and nelson That's Jim Bogoevski and Boyd Nelson.
"PS
Re Foleys involvement he was introduced to me by McCoy stating that he could
get the overall funding for Forsythe manufacturing and the ice cream ,Foley
said that it would be easier for him to get the money if he was a director and
shareholder ,he then said that McCoy should get some shares as with the money
that he could raise giving away shares did not matter the rest is history
Regards L"
MR DOUGLAS McCOY INVESTMENT ACTIVITIES
Mr BRAD HAZZARD (Wakehurst) [1.31 p.m.]: In life there are scam merchants and then there is the king of the scammers—one Douglas Graeme McCoy. I draw attention to this conman who knows no State boundaries and no moral boundaries. In 2005 a northern beaches woman, Therese Foley, received advice from an acquaintance at a northern beaches church that Mr McCoy would invest her money at a particularly good interest rate. In or about February 2005 Mrs Foley invested $300,000, the proceeds of her marriage property settlement, for a period of three months with the very unaptly named Loyalty Plus Pty Limited. None of the funds has ever been repaid. Mrs Foley advised me she had contacted the New South Wales Department of Consumer Affairs and the Australian Securities and Investments Commission prior to investing the funds and was given no indication that there was a problem. The Australian Securities and Investments Commission indicated that it had no history of Mr McCoy, and the New South Wales Department of Consumer Affairs indicated that it could not give Mrs Foley any information about Mr McCoy.
Research by Mrs Foley since the loss of her money found a reference to Mr McCoy in 1994 in Parliament after Mr Richard Amery, member of Parliament, asked a question on notice. At that time Mr Amery's question produced an answer that indicated that Douglas McCoy was involved in five separate companies that had generated a total of 48 formal complaints since 1985. The response also indicated that the Department of Consumer Affairs had cooperated with the New South Wales police service in initiation of criminal proceedings against Mr McCoy, although this appears never to have happened. I am therefore amazed that the Department of Consumer Affairs offered no advice to Mrs Foley prior to her lending the funds to Mr McCoy's company when he clearly has a long history of involvement in fraudulent activities of which the department was well aware or should have been aware.
On 14 June 2007 I wrote to the Minister for Fair Trading, the Hon. Linda Burney, sending a copy of the loan agreements dated February 2005, which facilitated the investment of $300,000 for three months. The documents stated interest would be paid up front and the balance repaid at the end of the three-month term. Mrs Foley received the one interest payment back. It appears she got back some of her $300,000 as an interest payment, but the rest was never seen again. Since February 2005—today is the three-year anniversary—she has received zilch. With the benefit of the history of parliamentary questions raised over 15 years ago, it is clear that Mr McCoy has ripped off vulnerable people for almost two decades, which raises the apparent lack of capacity in the State and Federal watchdogs to act appropriately. When I first contacted the Department of Consumer Affairs and the Federal body the Australian Securities and Investments Commission, neither body had contact details for Mr McCoy. Inquiries by me turned up an address in Western Sydney and I got a mobile number for that address. Phone discussions followed with the "king of conmen".
Mr McCoy presents as a credible fellow who turns out to be utterly incredible. After my contact with him he suddenly showed up at my office on Thursday 19 July 2007 and told me that he now lived at 6 Golfview Terrace, Robina, in Queensland. Does he really? Who knows? In a 1½ hour-long talkfest Mr McCoy admitted to me that he had been in a relationship with a woman called Jacqui Blazeski, the same woman who had attended a northern beaches church with Mrs Foley and first suggested that she invest her money with him. Mr McCoy claimed he had not seen Jacqui Blazeski for 12 to 18 months and that she had lived at Bondi. He stated that Jacqui had worked for him as a secretary-personal assistant for four to five months at Loyalty Plus. It would seem more likely that Jacqui was part of the scam, hooking innocent people into Mr McCoy's financial black hole.
So what is McCoy up to today? During our meeting he told me that he had set up a business with a woman called Bridget Bryant in a company called Y Not Call Me. He maintained there were "a lot of people after her" arising out of other business dealings. He named a James Meyers in Canada, and said the company's bank account was in Delaware, in the United States. He told me that had told Mrs Foley that her money would go into a telecommunications company with millions of distributors throughout the world and that this discussion took place in his office in Pyrmont in the premises of Y Not Call Me. Mrs Foley recollects going to a presentation at a Pyrmont office, which she thought belonged to Loyalty Plus Pty Limited, where McCoy delivered his conman spiel. She told him that she had her marriage property settlement funds to invest and that effectively they were all her available funds.
At the meeting with me in July, Mr McCoy gave me chapter and verse of his tales of woe to explain why he had not repaid the money. He told me he had put up 16 properties for security for loans totalling $1.8 million. He mentioned various properties at Mumbil and Wellington, and he said he now had a place on Macleay Island, off Queensland. He mentioned another business called Self Reliance, which he had operated 20 years ago, which had also gone into liquidation after a judgement debt for half a million dollars. After listening to his conman banter I asked him to sign a document on the spot that guaranteed he would personally pay back the money to Mrs Foley. That is, instead of Loyalty Plus Pty Limited, in liquidation, being the only avenue for Mrs Foley to get her money, I asked him to sign a document saying he would pay the money personally. In the best efforts of criminals, spivs and conmen, he even posed for a photograph showing the document he had just signed, which effectively bought him another few months while Mrs Foley hoped he would pay the money.
Today is the end of the road for McCoy the conman. Nobody on the northern beaches, nobody in Sydney, and indeed nobody in Australia, should be under any misapprehension: they would have more chance of getting their money back if they stood on North Head and threw their $300,000 to the four winds. I call on the Office of Fair Trading to get its act together and ensure that in future people who make inquiries before making investments can rely on the department to give the necessary information. If someone has been on a warning list, that is where they should stay and the list should be updated. In the meantime, the people of the northern beaches want to keep a look out for a fast-talking, smooth-operating king of scammers who will rip them off as quick as look at them. Finally, Mrs Foley needs help. She needs her $300,000. If anybody knows which rock this conman is under or what assets he has that could be used to pay back Mrs Foley, I ask them to please let Therese Foley know.
Ms LINDA BURNEY (Canterbury—Minister for Fair Trading, Minister for Youth, and Minister for Volunteering) [1.36 p.m.]: I thank the member for Wakehurst for raising the issue. He has written to me and discussed the matter with my staff. The body responsible for consumer protection regarding financial services is the Australian Securities and Investments Commission. However, the Office of Fair Trading contacted the liquidator seeking further information about the circumstances of the liquidation. Fair Trading investigated Mrs Foley's complaint and is liaising with the Australian Securities and Investments Commission about Mr McCoy's investment activities and involvement with at least one failed company to determine whether any regulatory action is appropriate.
Generally, Fair Trading is not in a position to provide consumers with reputation checks unless the Minister or the Commissioner for Fair Trading has issued a current public warning about the trader's conduct that can be brought to the attention of the inquirer. In the case of Mr McCoy no public statement has been issued for more than 10 years. I place that on record, but I am very happy, as the member for Wakehurst would know, to have further discussions regarding the matter. I take on board his comments today.