- 4/22/2025
Category
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TVTranscript
00:00With Hamish, no lie is ever too big.
00:04This is the biggest con man in Australian history.
00:07Hamish scammed in excess of $60 million.
00:11When we think about what motivates somebody like Hamish,
00:15it boils down to greed.
00:16He just wants money.
00:18It wouldn't matter if the victim had $5 or $5 million.
00:23He just wanted what you had.
00:26With Hamish's victims, everything starts off fantastic.
00:29Your best friends, you feel like you're on to a winner.
00:32I met Hamish online on a dating app.
00:36Charismatic, intelligent, funny.
00:39Very friendly.
00:40A little bit flash.
00:42He made you feel special.
00:44Hamish used different professions.
00:46He changed his name, he changed his look.
00:49I believed he was telling me the truth
00:51and had no reason to think otherwise.
00:54He used to always say, you're family.
00:55I'm not going to let you end up with nothing.
01:00Within two weeks, the money was in my account.
01:02They didn't stay in my account very long.
01:04It wasn't there a day.
01:06It was millions and millions of dollars
01:08just moving around over these pages.
01:10This wasn't just simple theft.
01:12He embedded himself in people's lives
01:14rather than blew them up.
01:16See you on the other side.
01:19He was lying in a bed next to me,
01:21pretending to love me.
01:23And in his head, he is plotting to destroy me.
01:26He stopped answering his phone completely.
01:29Then it all started to get really scary.
01:31He's a very cruel man.
01:33Very sick man, I think.
01:35Everybody that Hamish came across
01:37was a potential target.
01:39They didn't realize
01:40that they were standing face to face
01:42with a potential psychopath.
01:44I had no idea
01:46what was real and what was not.
01:48I was like, who the fuck is Hamish?
01:51See you on the other side.
01:54Hamish was a con man
02:08of the highest order.
02:10He ripped people off
02:11over an almost 30-year career
02:13all around the world.
02:17This wasn't just about theft for Hamish.
02:20He embedded himself in people's family
02:22or their friendship circle
02:23and then would just
02:24demolish their lives
02:26in the process.
02:33I had been separated
02:34from my husband for over a year.
02:37I was getting used
02:38to being a single mum,
02:40working hard,
02:41and I was looking to meet someone
02:45and potentially start a relationship.
02:48I came across a profile
02:53of a man by the name of Max
02:55on a dating app.
02:57He said he worked in banking
02:58and there were a series
02:59of photos of him.
03:01There was no description.
03:02It was just Max, 41.
03:04Tracey Hall, very much the picture
03:22of a successful Sydney businesswoman.
03:25She wasn't wanting to rush into anything.
03:28She had her guard up, certainly,
03:31when she encountered Max
03:33as Hamish was positioning himself.
03:35The first date that Hamish and I went on,
03:45he was very attentive,
03:48listened, asked questions.
03:50He was very interested
03:51in what was going on for me
03:54and there was never really
03:55any awkward silences
03:56or anything like that.
03:57So when you first meet someone,
03:58that's always a really good sign,
04:00I think.
04:01And we had a really good laugh.
04:02So I met Hamish
04:12through a very good friend
04:14who had investments with him.
04:17My first impression of Hamish
04:18was that he was very charming
04:20and he was very professional,
04:24head to toe in a Tom Ford suit.
04:26I thought he was the real deal.
04:32As is the way
04:39with a lot of Hamish's victims,
04:41Hamish was actually introduced
04:42to Karen by a friend
04:43and this friend talked him up
04:45and that immediately
04:47gained some trust.
04:51He told me that he
04:52had his own investment company
04:55and that he was a broker.
05:03First of all,
05:04I'll never forget this,
05:05he walked into my kitchen
05:06and went, wow.
05:10And that has always stayed with me
05:12because he was really impressed
05:14with the house.
05:16He was really, really interested
05:18to know if I had a mortgage
05:20and how much I'd paid
05:22for the house.
05:24He took many phone calls
05:26while he was on the first visit
05:28and talked openly
05:29about deals and trades.
05:33He sounded like he was
05:35a very busy man, actually.
05:36We actually met Hamish
05:51through our eldest granddaughter.
05:54You know, he's always jovial,
05:57could speak to people
05:58about anything and everything.
05:59Lorraine and Peter,
06:12really sweet, retired couple,
06:14such dedicated grandparents.
06:16Two of their grandchildren
06:17were born with disabilities.
06:19One died very early in their life,
06:21another died as a teenager.
06:23They took on a lot
06:24of parenting responsibilities.
06:26It was really clear
06:28that they found it
06:30really important
06:30to support their family
06:32however they could.
06:352004, Peter had
06:38an accident at work.
06:39I was involved
06:40in a truck rollover
06:42and lost the memory
06:43and three bleeds to the brain.
06:46I can always remember
06:47the neurosurgeon saying to me,
06:50forget the man you married
06:51because he's a different person
06:53altogether.
06:54And he was
06:55and still is.
06:59We had four years
07:01of trying to survive
07:03and then Pete got a good payout.
07:08He would have known
07:09that Peter's memory
07:12wasn't as good
07:13and I think that's where
07:14it started to go downhill.
07:18Yeah, he saw me
07:23as an easy target
07:24and as soon as he sees
07:27something like that
07:28he's just straight on.
07:31Everybody that Hamish
07:32came across
07:33from his perspective
07:34was a potential target.
07:36He saw them
07:37as an opportunity
07:38to exploit
07:39whereas from their perspective
07:40they didn't realise
07:41that they were standing
07:42face to face
07:43with a potential psychopath.
07:45Hamish was born
07:53on the 29th of March
07:551970.
07:56He attends
07:57a private school
07:58called Pittwater House
07:59on Sydney's
08:00Northern Beaches.
08:00This is a pretty quiet
08:02you know, family-oriented
08:04beach-focused
08:06part of Australia.
08:08The people who were
08:09friends with him
08:09when he was a teenager
08:10all said that he was
08:11a pretty nice
08:12you know, well-to-do guy.
08:15Liked hanging out
08:15with his friends.
08:17Had a bit of a fractured
08:17relationship
08:18with his father.
08:19He always felt
08:20that his dad
08:22didn't approve of him.
08:23He finished school
08:24in year 10.
08:24He didn't complete
08:25year 12.
08:26We do know
08:26that he, you know
08:27he moved out of home.
08:29He said at the time
08:30that it was because
08:31of a falling out
08:31with his father.
08:33After school
08:33in the 1980s
08:34Hamish was a ski
08:36instructor
08:36at Silver Star
08:37which is a ski hill
08:38in Canada.
08:45It's difficult
08:46to identify
08:47the exact starting point
08:48when Hamish's
08:50con began
08:51but we know
08:52it goes back
08:53a long time.
08:53Hamish got his
08:56start in the
08:57finance industry
08:58in the 1990s
08:59as a trainee
09:00share trading
09:01on the
09:02Sydney Futures
09:03Exchange.
09:10So my first
09:12recollection
09:13of Hamish
09:14was
09:14there's multiple
09:15flash
09:17fancy
09:18very expensive
09:19cars
09:21but
09:22certain
09:23stories
09:25didn't make
09:26sense.
09:30Joe Cross
09:31was one of the
09:32people who
09:32encountered
09:33Hamish early
09:33on in his
09:34career as a
09:35trader.
09:36Joe's company
09:36covered people's
09:37trades
09:38and when it
09:39came time to
09:39pay up
09:40there was
09:40something called
09:41a margin
09:41call.
09:41Hamish had a
09:42margin call
09:43for $400,000.
09:44He needed to
09:45get Joe the
09:45money by
09:46close of
09:47business
09:47on a
09:47Wednesday.
09:48By Friday
09:49night Hamish
09:49still hadn't
09:50paid up.
09:51Joe was
09:51threatening to
09:52shut down the
09:53account first
09:53thing Monday
09:54morning.
10:01I get this
10:02phone call on
10:03Saturday night.
10:04The fellow
10:04downstairs said
10:05listen there's a
10:06visitor here for
10:07you Joe.
10:09His name's
10:09Hamish.
10:10Hamish Watson
10:11is his name.
10:11I opened the
10:12door and said
10:13what's going on?
10:15He was carrying
10:15a garbage bag.
10:17He said I told
10:18you I'd give
10:19you the money
10:19well here it
10:20is.
10:21It was just
10:22under $400,000
10:23in cash and
10:25no one had
10:27ever paid me
10:28a margin call
10:29in cash.
10:33And he opened
10:34up his jacket
10:35and he showed
10:36me a handgun.
10:40The only place
10:41I've ever seen
10:42money like that
10:42was at the
10:43racetrack.
10:43the bookies
10:44had a lot
10:45of cash.
10:45Obviously
10:46criminals
10:47had a lot
10:48of cash.
10:49So I have no
10:49idea where
10:50he got it
10:50from.
10:57One of the
10:57first forays
10:58for Hamish
10:59into larger
11:00scale crime
11:01came in the
11:02late 1990s
11:02when he stopped
11:03being a trader
11:04and started
11:05what he called
11:06a fund
11:07with one of
11:08his friends.
11:08Initially
11:16when I first
11:17met Hamish
11:18he was
11:18Hamish Watson.
11:19That's you
11:20know the only
11:21name I was
11:22ever aware of.
11:23He would
11:24maintain eye
11:25contact, he
11:26would lean in,
11:27he would shake
11:28your hand and
11:29he would actually
11:30make you feel
11:31very special.
11:34This is an
11:35important moment
11:36in Hamish's
11:37career for want
11:38of a better
11:38word.
11:39This is where
11:39he's completely
11:40given up any
11:41kind of legitimate
11:42trading in a
11:43market and he's
11:43just going full
11:44on with a con.
11:46They were looking
11:46around for people
11:47to invest in
11:48this fund and
11:49so the first
11:50place he went
11:50looking was
11:51family and
11:52friends.
11:52Unfortunately
11:53for them it
11:54didn't end
11:54well.
11:58The figures
11:59that were sort
12:00of bandied
12:00about with
12:00regard to what
12:01the fund would
12:02return were
12:03sort of you
12:03know from
12:04memory 10 to
12:0412% a month
12:05and obviously
12:06compounding.
12:07I invested
12:08approximately
12:09$220,000.
12:11You know I was
12:11thinking that you
12:12know I'd almost
12:12be able to live
12:13on what I was
12:14going to get
12:15back.
12:18Hamish was
12:18reporting fantastic
12:19returns in this
12:20fund so Dominic
12:21naturally decided to
12:22cash out.
12:23This is always
12:24where it gets
12:24complicated with
12:25Hamish.
12:26He was telling
12:30me dates as to
12:31when I'd be paid
12:32some money which
12:33was sort of
12:33moving around and
12:34I remember getting
12:35a bit frustrated
12:35thinking you know
12:36what's the big
12:36deal here I want
12:37to take some
12:37money out but
12:39you know rather
12:39than a finite
12:40date where money
12:41would be transferred
12:42into your account
12:43it was sort of
12:43shifting.
12:45It all came to
12:46a head with an
12:47unwelcome call from
12:48a friend who knew
12:48all the players.
12:49The way I found
12:52out that everything
12:53with regard to
12:54Hamish was not
12:55as it seemed was
12:56when I got the
12:56phone call from
12:57my friend telling
12:59me basically that
13:00things were not
13:01as they seemed
13:02and it looked like
13:04Hamish was a
13:05con man.
13:08I initially
13:09panicked.
13:09I remember just
13:10feeling sick in the
13:11pit of my stomach.
13:12Obviously
13:12immediate terror
13:14because all I could
13:14think of was
13:16whether I was
13:16going to get my
13:17money back.
13:19It was one of
13:20Hamish's earliest
13:20cons and Dom was
13:22lucky that he had
13:23some powerful
13:24friends in his
13:25corner who were
13:25going to bat for
13:26him and helping
13:26get his money
13:27back.
13:28Who knows
13:29whether or not
13:29Hamish just said
13:30yeah give him
13:31his money back.
13:31I don't know but
13:32I got my money
13:33back.
13:38I would think
13:39once you're
13:40outed you would
13:41go hey I think
13:42it's time to
13:43change my
13:44vocation.
13:45Hamish just
13:46pretty much I
13:48think he dyed
13:48his hair colour
13:49right lost a
13:51ton of weight
13:51moved to
13:52Bondi and
13:54picked up where
13:55he left off
13:55because that was
13:56his MO and
13:57so he was able to
13:58start and do what
13:59he did all over
14:00again.
14:03There would be
14:04people around the
14:05world who
14:06Hamish has
14:07affected and
14:09they would be in
14:10the hundreds.
14:11They would be in
14:12the hundreds
14:13yep for sure.
14:14Hamish's business
14:22partner they allege
14:23Hamish had stolen
14:2411 million dollars
14:26from this fund
14:27this scam.
14:28He spent a lot of
14:29time energy and
14:30money chasing Hamish
14:31through the courts
14:32to no avail.
14:34There was no
14:34consequences for
14:35Hamish.
14:35He was able to
14:36slip the net
14:37leave the country
14:38go on offending
14:39elsewhere.
14:39Over the years
14:41Hamish had some
14:42pretty big scores.
14:43There were
14:43allegations that
14:44Hamish was able to
14:45rip off a well
14:47established family in
14:48regional Australia
14:48for 7 million
14:49dollars.
14:50A case in Canada
14:51for 2 million
14:52dollars.
14:53There's even a group
14:54in Hong Kong
14:54says that he took
14:556 million dollars
14:56so he's suddenly
14:57starting to present
14:58himself as someone
14:59who knows Tom
14:59Cruise who was
15:01hiring private jets
15:02who was buying his
15:02friends skidoos and
15:03jet skis.
15:04Host lavish parties
15:06in Canada and
15:07America and
15:08England.
15:09Those trappings
15:09also gave the
15:11illusion of someone
15:11who was successful
15:12and that he was
15:13making lots of
15:14money.
15:17He started off
15:18doing those
15:20corporate frauds
15:20but he moved away
15:21from that type of
15:23investment scam.
15:24He started to
15:25target individuals
15:26which were an
15:27easier mark for him.
15:29So he moved from
15:30individual to
15:31individual and that
15:32became his
15:32modus operandi.
15:36So if we break
15:38down the features
15:39of a good
15:40skilful con artist
15:41they tend to be
15:43quite intuitive
15:43so they're good
15:44at reading people
15:46good at finding
15:47those vulnerabilities
15:48quickly.
15:50They also tend
15:51to be quite
15:51charismatic.
15:53Con artists
15:53generally tend
15:54to be very good
15:55listeners but of
15:56course there's also
15:57devious tactics
15:58behind this.
15:59A con artist
15:59is also trying
16:00to find out
16:01how much money
16:02an individual
16:02has, how
16:04potentially susceptible
16:05or gullible
16:06they might be.
16:16Pete and I
16:16and a couple
16:17of friends
16:17were going
16:18out for a meal
16:19and they
16:20happened to be
16:21in the same
16:22restaurant and
16:23that was the
16:23first night
16:24that we actually
16:25met Hamish.
16:27So at the time
16:28Hamish was married
16:29and his teenage
16:30stepson was dating
16:31Peter and Lorraine
16:32Cross's granddaughter.
16:33That connection
16:37through their
16:38granddaughter was
16:38all Hamish would
16:39have needed to
16:39identify them
16:40as very vulnerable.
16:42Hamish knew about
16:42Peter's brain injury
16:43and he knew that
16:44as a result he'd
16:45received a pretty
16:46generous compensation
16:47payout.
16:49So what appeared
16:50to be a coincidental
16:52meeting in a
16:53restaurant was actually
16:54a carefully and
16:55meticulously planned
16:56out beginning of
16:58the con.
17:00To me it almost feels
17:02like an animal
17:03stalking its prey.
17:04So he did a lot
17:06of background
17:06research.
17:07He knew facts
17:08about them.
17:09He knew that they
17:10were financially
17:11vulnerable.
17:13He just said
17:13oh I think I've got
17:14something you really
17:15could be interested
17:17in.
17:19He didn't actually
17:20go into it at that
17:21stage.
17:22He said oh and if
17:23it's okay I can come
17:24around and see you.
17:25So it was about a
17:26week later that he
17:27did.
17:33And for Lorraine and
17:34Peter that was their
17:35first and fatal
17:36mistake.
17:40I can remember him
17:41coming up the stairs
17:42and he stopped and he
17:44looked around and he
17:44says wow this is a
17:46nice house.
17:47And I just didn't
17:49take much notice of
17:50it.
17:51And then he came
17:51over and sat down
17:53and he started
17:54telling us about
17:55some deal with
17:56buying shares
17:57for 20 cents
17:59but they were
18:00actually worth
18:01a dollar which
18:02means you're
18:03making a lot
18:04of money.
18:07He was very
18:08wary of being
18:09around people who
18:10had a better
18:10understanding or
18:11could kind of
18:12sniff out things
18:13and I think it was
18:13pretty clever at
18:15just weaseling his
18:17way into
18:17relationships where
18:18he knew they
18:19weren't going to
18:19be able to
18:21outsmart him or
18:22detect what he
18:22was doing.
18:23Well we didn't
18:24have a great deal
18:25of money actually
18:26in the bank as
18:27that we could just
18:28get our hands on
18:29so we decided to
18:30use a loan that
18:32we had that I
18:33hadn't actually
18:33cancelled out from
18:34when he had his
18:36accident.
18:36About $150,000
18:38so that's what we
18:39decided to do.
18:41Tracy had just
18:51started dating
18:52Hamish who she
18:53believed was a
18:5441 year old banker
18:55called Max Tavita.
18:57Hamish had just
18:58begun working on
18:59her.
19:00We went on a lot
19:01of dates before
19:02things got serious
19:04or intimate.
19:06We liked doing
19:07the same things.
19:09we enjoyed being
19:10outside, we enjoyed
19:11exercising, we
19:12enjoyed being in
19:13the ocean.
19:14In psychiatric
19:15terms this is
19:16called mirroring.
19:18If you can connect
19:18with somebody, if
19:19you can make them
19:20feel that they're
19:21on the same
19:22wavelength as you
19:23perhaps you have
19:24the same kind of
19:24interests and
19:25hobbies and
19:25opinions then
19:27they're more likely
19:27to connect with
19:28you.
19:29As we spent more
19:30and more time
19:31together that became
19:32obvious that we
19:33just really enjoyed
19:34each other's
19:35company.
19:35over time we
19:38grew closer and
19:39closer and yeah
19:41I grew feelings
19:42for him.
19:45If somebody seems
19:46very similar to
19:47you, you're more
19:48likely to be open
19:49and susceptible to
19:50believing anything
19:51they tell you.
19:56He essentially
19:58became what he
19:59knew I would be
20:01attracted to so
20:03so that I would
20:04respect him, fall
20:07in love with him
20:07and want to
20:09continue to be
20:10with him.
20:20When Karen met
20:21Hamish he was
20:22calling himself
20:22Hamish McLaren.
20:24She was newly
20:25divorced and she
20:26had no money to
20:27fix the roof that
20:28was leaking.
20:29Now Hamish is
20:30brilliant at reading
20:30people and so he
20:31knew immediately
20:32that Karen was
20:33desperate.
20:36He just kept
20:36telling me not
20:37to worry, I can
20:38help you, I know
20:38I can help you.
20:39So you mustn't
20:40worry anymore, we're
20:41going to fix the
20:41roof, you're going
20:42to be okay.
20:46He asked me, you
20:47know, how much I
20:48needed, that I
20:49think I need about
20:50$200,000 and he
20:53said, well, I think
20:54you probably need
20:55more than that.
20:57Karen also had a
20:58house guest from
20:59England staying at
21:00the time.
21:00He actually
21:01witnessed the
21:02first meeting
21:02between Karen and
21:03Hamish.
21:06All of a sudden
21:07this fellow with
21:08bright bleach blonde
21:11hair turned up,
21:13was about 40 odd,
21:14looked ridiculous and
21:15sailed into the
21:16kitchen and just
21:17started working on
21:18his computer.
21:21He was very keen to
21:23tell us, you know,
21:23he worked for
21:24Goldman Sachs and that
21:27he worked all over the
21:29world for them globally
21:30had use of Goldman Sachs
21:32jet.
21:35So Hamish knew
21:36exactly how to pitch
21:37something and why
21:38would they question it
21:39when he's a professional
21:40trader, he's living the
21:42high life, his scam
21:43looks so legitimate.
21:44Yeah, after he left that day, I
21:51then called my friend and she
21:53said, I've told him how, you
21:54know, how desperate you are
21:55and he will help you.
21:59When he came back a couple of
22:00days later, he almost went,
22:03right, I can get you a million
22:06dollars.
22:07And I said, I don't need a million
22:08dollars.
22:09He said, well, I hate the banks,
22:11so we're going to take a
22:13million dollars and I'm going
22:15to make that money work for
22:16you.
22:19I said the loan repayments on a
22:21million dollars is a lot of
22:22money.
22:23He said, no, no, you don't have
22:23to worry about the loan
22:24repayments.
22:28Container 8 will take care of
22:29that.
22:31And that's a company that he
22:33traded under the name of.
22:35And he said Container 8 will
22:38take care of those payments.
22:39It will all come out of the
22:41fund.
22:43Hamish had the ability to adapt
22:46his scams depending on the
22:48victim.
22:49In some cases, the scams would
22:50draw out over a long period of
22:52time.
22:52In other cases, it was quite
22:54short.
22:56He came back about five days
22:58later.
22:59He said, I can get you this
23:01money and you just need to sign
23:03these forms.
23:05Within two weeks, the money was
23:06in my account from the first day
23:08I met him.
23:10But he didn't stay in my account
23:11very long.
23:13It wasn't there a day.
23:17Karen's story is very typical of
23:19what happened with Hamish's
23:20victims.
23:21Everything starts off fantastic.
23:23Your best friends, he's giving
23:25you great financial advice.
23:26He's really going to set you up.
23:27You feel like you're onto a
23:28winner.
23:29Within days, she had this loan.
23:32She used the $200,000 to fix up
23:35her house.
23:35Hamish took the extra $800,000 out
23:38of her bank account and said, I'll
23:39invest it for you.
23:40Don't worry, it's going to be
23:41fantastic.
23:42And I'll keep repaying your
23:43mortgage so that you can stay
23:44here.
23:46Hamish had siphoned off almost a
23:48million dollars from Karen's bank
23:50accounts.
23:50But he was looking for his next
23:52scam.
23:53He followed Karen and Henry to
23:55England.
23:55It opened up a whole world of rich
23:57picking.
23:57Within a week of being in England,
24:07there was a race meeting in New
24:09Market.
24:10And he met a couple of guys there.
24:13And by the end of the day, he'd
24:15secured himself an apartment in
24:16Belgravia in London, where he never
24:19paid the rent.
24:21And he also leased a Range Rover.
24:24And he never paid the lease on that.
24:26And then he just tried to get into
24:28everyone's pockets over there.
24:37I introduced him to friends of mine
24:40that worked in the city, to friends
24:42of mine that work in property and
24:44real estate.
24:46He would go there already being
24:48faultlessly researched on them as
24:50individuals, their company, what they
24:53do, so that when he got there, he
24:56could be exactly the person that
24:58they wanted him to be.
25:03Hamish was keeping all of his
25:05connections in London warm,
25:07particularly anyone with access to
25:08millions of dollars or in that high
25:10money set in London.
25:11Evan is a financial consultant in London,
25:21and he was asked to check out Hamish
25:23for a friend who Hamish was sniffing
25:25around.
25:29We knew him in London as Hamish
25:31Maxwell.
25:32He said he was doing high-frequency
25:34trading for Goldman Sachs.
25:35I told him that I know a lot of people
25:38in this specific department at
25:40Goldman Sachs who would surely know him
25:43if he'd ever had any affiliation with
25:46Goldman Sachs.
25:51And at that moment, he started perspiring
25:53and excused himself, and he said he needed
25:57to leave to get to his next meeting.
25:59He realized, to his credit, frankly, that he
26:03couldn't sit there for another minute
26:04without getting caught in a lie.
26:12Only days after running away from that
26:14meeting, it emerged that Hamish had been
26:15telling some very tall tales about his
26:17financial wizardry.
26:20He had made $75 billion in, you know,
26:23in a single year.
26:24In fact, he was talking about numbers that
26:26exceeded the entire profitability of the
26:28entire U.S. banking sector.
26:30So the numbers just didn't make any sense.
26:33So he was relying on people just not
26:36checking or not comprehending the scale
26:38of those numbers.
26:39Obviously, he did not stand up to scrutiny.
26:44With Hamish, no lie is ever too big.
26:47And if one doesn't work, he just tries
26:48the next one.
26:49For Tracey, things with Max were going really
26:58well.
26:59And over time, he started to reveal more
27:01about his past.
27:02But unfortunately, none of it was real.
27:08So one of our first dates, we had agreed to go up
27:12to Palm Beach for the day.
27:14Then we decided to walk up to the lighthouse.
27:16You know, as we're up there and we're sitting on a rock and
27:21looking out at the view, he dropped into conversation
27:24that he would one day like to get married up the top of
27:29Baron Joey Headland at the lighthouse.
27:33And he said, I feel happy here because this is where my
27:36parents' ashes are scattered.
27:37And he had told me very early on that his parents had died in a
27:43plane crash when he was six.
27:45If he ever got married, that's where he'd want to get married
27:47because he'd want his parents to be there with him.
27:51I think it was a way for him to make me feel closer to him.
27:56I don't know.
27:57I guess I'll never know that.
27:58He's invented incredible and terrible fantastical stories
28:07about his family.
28:10That twin brother that Hamish ran over in the driveway of the
28:14house and killed him at the age of nine.
28:17His mother had an affair and his dad murdered the person that his
28:20mum was having an affair with.
28:22These violent, terrible fractures in his childhood were things
28:27that he came back to.
28:28I think that there is something inherently broken in there with
28:32Hamish that he can't relate to people.
28:45Hamish told me he was the chief investment officer for a family
28:48office in the city, managing money on behalf of wealthy families.
28:53So he made all of the investment decisions surrounding those funds.
28:57He'd toddle off to work on a Monday morning and would go into the city
29:02together and he'd have his Tom Ford suit on and he'd be ready to go do
29:06his day of, you know, investment banking.
29:09I believed he was going into the office.
29:12He was running a team of people.
29:14He had analysts.
29:15He had a boss that he spoke about a lot, Anna.
29:19He told me which street the office was located in.
29:22He sent me photos from that office.
29:25He spoke at length about people in the office, what they ate for lunch, what they spoke about,
29:31what investments were happening, where they went for drinks after work.
29:35I took it on face value.
29:37I believed he was telling me the truth and had no reason to think otherwise.
29:41Hamish clearly didn't have empathy for his victims, but he was actually very good at giving the
29:52impression that he cared.
29:55Hamish was very much in the lives of his victims.
29:58He would socialize with them.
30:00He would spend time with their families.
30:03He was even doing this after the scams had started and whilst they were going on.
30:07So I think he has a lack of compassion.
30:09He is quite cunning and he is manipulative.
30:13But it also shows to me that he has a high level of confidence in his own ability to pull
30:18off the scams.
30:22Hamish used to invite us down and we would stay with him in Sydney.
30:28We'd go out to good restaurants, beautiful meals, you know, wine and all this sort of thing.
30:33You know, we ended up becoming very close friends and enjoying each other's company.
30:39Each time that we went down, he was to show us what was going on with our investments, etc.
30:46That was a quick little thing on the computer.
30:51He knew exactly what documentation looks like and because of his experience, he was able
31:01to lay that out in a very professional way.
31:04The documentation looks legitimate.
31:06Obviously, there's a lot of trust in him.
31:09They had no experience with dealing with criminals.
31:12He invited us around to his place and he just said to us that we were up to $3 million dust
31:33off our $150,000.
31:35And I was a bit dumbfounded and didn't look at it and I said, oh, really?
31:44Hamish never went for it all at once with his victims.
31:46With Peter and Lorraine having earned their trust, he asked for more.
31:49He convinced them to give him their retirement savings, their superannuation, the nest egg
31:54that was supposed to set them up for the rest of their life.
31:56We thought, well, we might as well pull our money out of our MLC super and give it to him
32:07and do better with it.
32:10I think from memory, about $1,500,000 or something.
32:16He knew exactly what he was doing and it netted him a massive payday.
32:20Most of my friends are in racing back in England.
32:31Around May, June, there's a lot of horse race meetings and he got himself along to a few of those.
32:38Then there was Roy Lascott and he hired his top hat and came to the races and then sort of became one of the lads.
32:46At that race meeting, he got himself invited onto the private jet to holiday with the boys.
33:01After Roy Lascott, he had been invited by friends of mine on a jet to Ibiza.
33:06I went on the trip as well.
33:08He spent the four days with us at a friend of mine's house.
33:16All of a sudden, he said he'd lost all of his credit cards, left them at home.
33:21So I had to lend him the money while he was there.
33:25He would disappear on those trips for a lot of the day and he would stay back at the villa.
33:32While we all went out for lunch, he would stay back at the villa, apparently working.
33:35Why would he come on a trip like this if he had to work all the time?
33:39Nothing really, none of the dots connected.
33:44After the trip to Ibiza, the cracks were really starting to show.
33:51When I'd come back from Ibiza, I just said to Karen,
33:55Karen, you need your money back.
33:56This guy is not straightforward.
33:59He just tells massive lies.
34:01He says he's got all this money, all these cars, yet he can't find 500 quid to bring on holiday to Ibiza.
34:08I said, if he can't get money like that, Karen, you've got no chance with your money.
34:16And that completely threw me into a spin.
34:18I said, what do you mean?
34:19He said, he's just not who he says he is.
34:22You know, he said, just things that don't add up.
34:25He said, you need to get your money.
34:27At this stage, Karen was getting really concerned that Hamish wasn't who he said he was.
34:36And meanwhile, Tom Zadrovic, an officer with the New South Wales Police Force,
34:40was handed a complicated case.
34:43At the time of the Hamish investigation,
34:46I was a detective senior constable working out of Northern Beaches detective's office.
34:51The investigation started after one of the victims reported the matter through to the police.
35:03My supervising sergeant had received the job.
35:07The initial view was that at first glance, maybe,
35:12it could be perceived as being an investment gone wrong
35:15and now an attempt to recoup that money and something that we couldn't be able to prove in the long term.
35:23When the financial crime stuff comes in,
35:25you need to be patient and be willing to kind of invest the time
35:29because it's a lot of work.
35:30I just don't want to give it up.
35:33I hate just going, yeah, sure, we'll just let this go.
35:36Like, unless I'm 100% certain, I don't like letting it go.
35:39The big motivator was the amount of money the initial victim lost,
35:44which was in the hundreds of thousands.
35:46I knew that there was something wrong.
35:56Only five months after first meeting Hamish in her own kitchen,
35:59it was starting to dawn on Karen that Hamish wasn't what he'd put himself up to be.
36:04The mortgage repayments that he'd promised had stopped
36:06and Karen was having to chase him every month for money.
36:09So every month I had to find around $6,000 to pay the loan.
36:15And we went through a phase of having to pick up money in envelopes from him.
36:21I said to Hamish, I cannot go on like this.
36:25He said, well, come into the city, just got to stop at the office
36:29and I'll get you some cash.
36:31That was one of the last times Karen ever saw Hamish.
36:39That's when the money started drying up.
36:43And then every month was like Groundhog Day trying to find the repayment.
36:50Then it all started to get really scary.
36:52One of the victims reported the matter through to the police.
37:03The name that they had given was Hamish McLaren.
37:06When I started to look him up on the police systems,
37:12there was a couple of different identities in there
37:15and they were all associated with some form of fraud or theft.
37:21The victim had provided a copy of his bank account,
37:24so that was the first kind of thing that we started to look at.
37:26I put out a blanket request to the major banks
37:31to identify anything that could be remotely linked back to Hamish McLaren.
37:37I came back to find a ream and a half of paper on my desk for bank statements.
37:45It was like an overwhelming feeling, I think.
37:47It was like looking at a lot of stuff there that I'm going to have to do.
37:51At the same time, it was exciting because I felt like I was onto something.
37:56Karen owed the bank over a million dollars.
38:04She was desperately trying to get Hamish to stick to the plan
38:07that he proposed to her,
38:08where he would give her $6,000 a month to cover the mortgage.
38:11But the mortgage payments had stopped,
38:13so it seemed like Hamish was running a short con on Karen.
38:16Within months, she'd stopped hearing from it altogether.
38:21The loan didn't get paid one month.
38:24There was a letter as well to say that
38:26you are in breach of the loan agreement.
38:30I felt sick.
38:32I didn't sleep a lot.
38:34And then he went through a couple of months
38:37of pretending to be in Singapore,
38:39and he was in Bondi surfing.
38:45Hamish had stopped paying the repayments
38:48on the million dollars he'd borrowed in Karen's name
38:50and then moved into his own account.
38:54I used to drive around Bondi looking for him.
38:56And then one day, a girlfriend of mine in Bondi saw him,
39:00and she sent me a photograph of him in the butcher shop.
39:02And I went to the butcher shop and said,
39:04do you know blonde Hamish who surfs?
39:07And he went, yes.
39:08Have you seen him recently?
39:09And they said, yes, he was in the other day.
39:13Around about that time,
39:14he stopped answering his phone completely.
39:18Once I realized that I probably was in trouble,
39:21it became just every living minute
39:25I was trying to figure out what I was going to do.
39:35When Hamish found someone with access to money,
39:38he kept going back again and again until they were out.
39:42And that's what he did with Peter and Lorraine.
39:43He'd already tapped them for $1.65 million.
39:47Hamish had an intimate understanding
39:49of all of Peter and Lorraine's finances.
39:52In particular, he was aware of an untapped line of credit
39:55on a loan that they hadn't accessed yet.
39:59He actually one day rang me up and he said
40:01he knew there was about 360, I think,
40:06left in that loan, the thing that we had.
40:10Hamish knew exactly how to get them to hand him the money.
40:14He promised them fantastic returns on a short-term investment.
40:18And he said, I've got onto something really good
40:22and it's only going to be short time.
40:23And he said, I'll have your money back to you.
40:26And I said, yeah, sure.
40:27So I was going to give him the lot.
40:28And he said, no, you keep 60 and the 300 will be fine.
40:35When we look at the specific tactics that a con artist use,
40:38one of the things is they'll create this time pressure.
40:42You know, it's a really good investment,
40:43but you have to invest now.
40:44Because they know that if there is this time pressure,
40:47then the victim is less likely to think through the risks.
40:53He used to always say, your family, you know,
40:56you're like a big sister to me.
40:58I'm not going to let you end up with nothing.
41:01He'd gotten them to hand over all of their super,
41:06more than a million and a half dollars,
41:08and then convinced them to borrow more
41:10against the loans they'd already had.
41:13The repayments that he said that he was going to keep paying
41:16stopped coming.
41:17That's when we got into trouble as far as money,
41:21because that $150,000 that we borrowed
41:24maxed out to nearly $730,000,
41:29because it wasn't being paid off.
41:33Which he started doing, but then eventually he stopped.
41:38But somehow Hamish managed to convince Peter and Lorraine
41:42that it was all going to be OK.
41:44He said, don't worry about it.
41:45You'll have your money by the 14th of June, I think it was.
41:50He kept saying, the money's coming,
41:53we've just got to wait for it to mature,
41:55and I just sat back, give him the benefit of the doubt,
41:58and let Lorraine deal with him.
42:08I started doing my own checks on businesses
42:12he was affiliated with.
42:13The businesses didn't appear legitimate in any sense.
42:17He used different business entities.
42:19So Burlington, Prudential was one,
42:22Container 8, Oceana Financial Markets, I think.
42:27He used those business names
42:28and then derivatives of his own identity
42:31to make it difficult to tie these stories together.
42:34Unless you're looking to tie them together,
42:36they won't naturally do it.
42:41I spent all day looking at bank statements
42:44and the amount of money that you can see moving between people
42:48and the deposits he's receiving
42:49and the payments that he's making,
42:52it was millions and millions and millions of dollars
42:55just moving around over these pages.
42:57It's the type of money that I hadn't seen before.
43:01The conversations we had around personal money
43:07were scattered throughout all of the other conversations,
43:12specifically around trades he was doing
43:14and, you know, funds he was investing in,
43:17what the markets were doing,
43:18those kind of things.
43:22Never once did he say,
43:23how much money do you earn
43:25or how much have you got in superannuation
43:26or how much savings do you have?
43:28Like, there was never anything like that.
43:32The con that Hamish used against Tracy
43:34was a long game.
43:37So for this to work,
43:38it takes a lot of commitment and a lot of time.
43:41He didn't even ask about her money
43:43until they'd known each other for about a year.
43:47Over the months
43:48and almost a year,
43:51he had had so many of these conversations with me
43:55that when he said,
43:56why don't you set up your own self-managed super?
43:59And I said,
44:01well, you know,
44:02I wouldn't know how to do that.
44:04I don't know, you know,
44:05and of course, you know,
44:06there's Hamish that says,
44:08I can help you with that.
44:13The con artists or good con artists
44:15use the soft sell rather than the hard sell.
44:18They don't try and push their agenda too much
44:22because if they can lay a trap,
44:24if they put some bait
44:25and the victim comes towards that
44:28and makes them think
44:28that it's an idea they want to invest in,
44:31it's much more likely to work.
44:34I didn't suspect anything
44:36and to me it all seemed 100% legitimate.
44:39It was all about speed.
44:43The longer I left him out in the world,
44:45the more he would just steal.
44:47I rank him incessantly.
44:49I had shingles.
44:50My hair fell out.
44:52What he did was just despicable.
44:55I actually think that he was grooming her
44:57from about 15, 16.
45:00That's when the world came crashing down.
45:03The side.
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