‘The treachery behind it is just unbearable’:Heartbreaking fallout of Melissa Caddick’s fraud

Missing con artist Melissa Caddick used funds she received from victims of her Ponzi scheme in a brazen attempt to perpetrate another fraud.

On Christmas Eve,2015,Len Wallis,who runs a high-end audio visual store,received a furious call from Melissa Caddick complaining that her family’s newly installed sound system wasn’t working,

Caddick refused to pay the last $12,000 of Wallis’s $122,000 bill.

Not only that,she told Wallis she was leaving for Aspen the day after Christmas and,because the audio wasn’t working,she claimed she’d been forced to cancel bookings for two tenants who planned to rent her house while she was away.

Wallis was stunned to receive a demand for $65,000 in compensation for Caddick’s lost holiday rental,the podcastLiar Liar:Melissa Caddick and the Missing Millions reveals in its season finale on Monday.

Melissa Caddick photographed in the $2500 Dolce&Gabbana dress at friend Kate Horn’s 50th birthday party. Plus excerpts from her rental fraud.

Melissa Caddick photographed in the $2500 Dolce& Gabbana dress at friend Kate Horn’s 50th birthday party. Plus excerpts from her rental fraud.Supplied

“Our home is an income producing asset that we rent out over the lucrative Christmas/New Year and School Holiday periods,” Caddick said in her email.

She claimed that due to the failure of the hardware installed by Len Wallis Audio “both of these tenancy’s (sic) needed to be cancelled” and that she had had to reimburse $65,000.

She also wrote:“I have attached for your reference Tax Invoices,Tax Receipts,Bank Transaction Credit and Debit Records. You will note for confidentiality purposes I have had to omit the clients private details.

“Please confirm that $65,000 will be reimbursed within 14 business days,” said the email.

However,the two rental agreements she attached as proof of her loss were forgeries.

One of the fraudulent rental tax invoices Melissa Caddick prepared to claim lost income.

One of the fraudulent rental tax invoices Melissa Caddick prepared to claim lost income.Supplied

Caddick did receive the equivalent sums in her bank accounts,but they were not for the rental of her Dover Heights home. The deposits were from two of her victims who thought they were investing in shares.

Caddick,49,vanished in November 2020 within hours of the Federal Police and investigators from the corporate regulator ASIC raiding her house in connection with her theft of $23 million from family and friends.

Her partial remains were found in a running shoe at a remote beach three months later.

One of Caddick’s employees was adamant that her boss did not like strangers coming into her house.

A bank statement from Caddick’s company Maliver showing money transferred out in the names of two investors purporting to be as payment for renting out her house.

A bank statement from Caddick’s company Maliver showing money transferred out in the names of two investors purporting to be as payment for renting out her house.Supplied

Having received this letter of demand,Wallis had to hire lawyers and an insurance investigator to dispute Caddick’s claims.

Caddick’s claim was denied after the investigator concluded that “it was unfortunately[Caddick’s husband] Anthony Koletti’s direct actions in intervening with the equipment that caused the system to fail in its entirety on 24 December 2015.”

Melissa Caddick with Anthony Koletti. She is wearing the $2500 Dolce&Gabbana dress she wore to friend Kate Horn’s 50th birthday party.

Melissa Caddick with Anthony Koletti. She is wearing the $2500 Dolce& Gabbana dress she wore to friend Kate Horn’s 50th birthday party.Supplied

Wallis later provided a brand-new piece of equipment,at no charge,to replace what Koletti had broken. They didn’t hear from Caddick again but neither did they receive their last payment of $12,000.

Koletti has declined to speak to the podcast.

The final episode of the podcast also reveals the ongoing financial hardship of Caddick’s victims.

Only a month before she was unmasked,Caddick insisted on attending her oldest friend’s 50th birthday.

Her friend Kate Horn recalls Melissa wearing a garish dress which featured patterns of large jewels. When her daughter later googled the outfit they were shocked that the Dolce and Gabbana dress cost $2500.

What the family didn’t know was that Horn’s oldest friend had stolen more than $10 million from her extended family.

When Caddick’s husband Anthony Koletti later showed Channel 7 through his Dover Heights house,they paused at his wife’s empty wardrobe.

All her fancy designer labels had been seized during the raid. All except one. Still hanging in the wardrobe was the Dolce and Gabbana dress she’d worn to her friend’s party.

“Being Kate’s best friend…the treachery behind it all is just unbearable,” said Horn’s mother Anne,78,who has lost her life’s savings as well as her enjoyment of life.

“It’s there all the time. It’s sitting at the back of my mind,every minute. Everything you do,you think,can I be affording this? Or should I be doing this? Even grocery shopping. I think before I buy clothes…and no,I won’t have a wine tonight.”

Kate McClymont is chief investigative reporter at The Sydney Morning Herald.

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