Notorious Gold Coast Marketeer Sues Controversial Agent

OPINION
by Tim O’Dwyer M.A., LL.B Queensland Solicitor & Consumer Advocate watchdog@argonautlegal.com.au

Last August Property Review reported that Christopher Bilborough, who was described by The Courier Mail as “one of the former king-pins of Queensland’s insidious property marketeering industry”, had not been served after some years with any legal process by the Office of Fair Trading to recover some $860,000.00 he was allegedly liable to reimburse a government-established claim fund which had paid out to over-priced property marketeering victims. At the time Fair Trading Minister Margaret Keech told Parliament she had hauled her Director-General over the coals and directed that both service of Bilborough and recovery of the moneys be made a priority. The good news (for Fair Trading) was that the man was eventually served. The bad news (for Fair Trading) was that just before Christmas last year the Supreme Court of Queensland ruled that Bilborough was liable on only two of Fair Trading’s seven claims and that he had to pay $242,153.00 – a mere 28% of what Fair Trading was after. In a statement to The Courier Mail Fair Trading Minister Margaret Keech tried to put a positive spin on this very ordinary win: “The judgment means Mr. Bilborough will have to pay the largest penalty imposed for two-tiered marketeering in Queensland.”

Interestingly The Courier Mail also reported shortly before this that Bilborough had launched his own District Court legal action to recoup almost $200,000.00 he was allegedly dudded out of in a real estate deal. The Courier’s Gold Coast Bureau Chief, Greg Stolz, began his report this way: “One of the Gold Coast’s most notorious property marketers claims to have been conned by one of the Glitter Strip’s most controversial real estate agents.”

Bilborough had engaged estate agent Heather Filippini, also known as Heather Penney, to sell his home on the Coast’s Sovereign Islands, a minute man-made northern Gold Coast suburb. Filippini, trading as Heather Filippini Island Realty, allegedly charged him almost $22,000.00 in commission for selling the home for $775,000.00 – wait for it – to her own daughter..

Bilborough stated in Court documents that a matter of months after settlement the agent’s daughter had resold the property for $950,000.00. The lawyer for Filippini and her co-defendant daughter told The Courier Mail that they would vigorously deny Billborough’s allegations.

In the meantime Filippini herself had been the subject of Office of Fair Trading charges over the sale of three mansions on Sovereign Islands where, while acting as the sellers’ agent, she had had alleged obtained an illegal “beneficial interest” in each purchase.

According to The Courier Mail those charges, not yet heard by the Commercial and Consumer Tribunal, alleged that Filippini gained her “beneficial interest” in the purchases because either she or her daughter bought properties sold by her.

The Gold Coast Bulletin reported more details of the sales which prompted Fair Trading’s charges. One property was sold for $1.185 million in June, 2002 to Alexei and Sarah Fedotov. Five months later, it was re-sold for $1.45 million. Fair Trading’s charge against Filippini was that she gained “a beneficial interest in the said property by virtue of the fact that Sarah Louise Fedotov (nee Penney) is an associate of the Respondent, namely a child of the respondent, as defined in schedule 2 of the Property Agents and Motor Dealers Act 2000”. Fair Trading also charged that Filippini had not been appointed in writing by the owners of the property in accordance with the Act “prior to the performing the activity of negotiating for the sale of the said property”.

In November 2004 Filippini sold another property for $1.3 million to “AA Fedotov or nominee”. Title searches showed that Heather Penney became the registered owner. Fair Trading charged that Filippini “gained a beneficial interest in the said property by virtue of the fact that the purchase of the said property was made for the respondent (Heather Filippini ) personally”. Filippini was also charged with not being appointed in writing as the sellers’ agent.

According to The Gold Coast Bulletin Filippini is a high profile agent with a multi-million dollar sales turnover. She drives a red Ferrari or a yellow Porsche and, when the mood takes her, goes for a spin in her blue Rolls Royce. Her Russian-born son-in-law, Alexei Fedotov, drives an expensive 4WD with the rego plate `Ruski'.

Filippini and her de facto Frank Filippini have, reported The Bulletin, personally bought and sold more than more than $13 million worth of property on The Sovereign Islands. Property searches revealed that Filippini’s daughter (variously known as Sarah Fedotov, Sarah Penney and Sarah Filippini) and her husband Alexei topped that figure with $16 million worth of Sovereign Islands purchases.

The Gold Coast Bulletin’s investigations uncovered that Heather Penney filed for bankruptcy in 1988 with debts of $115,337.82, and was discharged from bankruptcy in 1991. Tired of being a `bored housewife' Filippini turned to real estate, and gained her agent’s license in 2000.

But wait there’s more. The Courier recently reported that Queensland’s Office of State Revenue has issued Filippini with a bill for almost $200,000 in stamp duty and penalties because stamp duties concession laws were breached when neither Fedotov nor Filippini occupied two mansions purchased in the name of "A.A. Fedotov or Nominees". Filippini, not Fedotov, emerged as the owner. She claims the assessment is "excessive, capricious, arbitrary and contrary to law and fact".

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