Elie Douna was frank and open when chatting over the phone about his plans to rort the system.
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A solicitor, a secretary, his brother and his real estate agent - they all heard piecemeal parts of his grand plan to fraudulently secure a $14.7 million bank loan to fund his next big property development.
But the cops heard it all.
Detectives were listening in on Douna's phone calls in late 2020 when he began orchestrating a plan to make his latest venture - 'Avoca Park' in Avondale - appear more successful that it actually was, in the hope of securing finance from Australian Unity Bank.
Documents tendered to Wollongong Local Court on Wednesday said Douna needed the hefty loan to fund the project, but sales of the 19 homes proposed for stage one were sluggish, with only 10 sold by the time construction was due to commence.
Douna enlisted the help of Albion Park real estate agent Ben Feltham to help him cook the project's books, planning to make it appear on paper that all the homes had been sold. He told Feltham at the time "even if only half sell, I'll bodgie the rest up".
In January 2021, Douna had Feltham create fake sales contracts and receipts for the nine unsold properties using the names of friends or associates, all of whom later told police they had no idea their identities were being used and they had no intention of purchasing property.
In one conversation between the pair, Douna said "I've got 10 exchanged with Avondale, and I'm going to make up the other nine, I just need some [deposit] receipts".
Feltham replied "oh yeah, I can do that. I'm pretty sure I've got a template, like a word doc saved on my desktop. If you just give me some names and some prices, I should be able to knock 'em up and flick 'em over."
In another conversation captured between the pair after the fake contracts had been drawn up, Douna said "so ten are good and nine are bodgie, but um, they are proper people, proper agents, proper (laughs) you know what I mean."
Meanwhile, Douna phoned his mortgage broker to report a clean sweep of sales and instructed him to proceed with the loan application.
Detectives contacted the bank to warn them about the suspected scam and the application was stopped immediately.
Douna and Feltham were arrested in February last year and charged with a host of fraud offences.
After negotiations with prosecutors, the pair both entered guilty pleas to three counts each of making a false document to obtain a financial advantage. They will be sentenced at a later date.
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