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Steven Cross
Yesterday, the director of Consumer Affairs Victoria was forced to issue a public warning about a rent roll broker that is allegedly ripping off real estate agents.
Several agents claim to have had paid significant sums of money to the director of a company who contacted agents offering the sale of rent rolls. However, he has failed to deliver the assets.
Consumer Affairs Victoria has subsequently released a public warning against Mark Whittingham from Connection Blue in response to complaints from agents across NSW and Victoria.
In one instance, Consumer Affairs claims one estate agent parted with $135,000 without receiving access to the purchased rent roll.
In similar complaints about Mr Whittingham, another Victorian estate agent alleges to have paid $24,200 and a New South Wales agent claims to have paid $1,000.
This isn’t the first time Mr Whittingham has been implicated for such activities.
In September 2012 his company, Buy A Trail, was also flagged by Consumer Affairs after the company, which offered loan trail books for sale to brokers, failed to deliver on its promises.
When Real Estate Business tracked down Mr Whittingham, despite acknowledging his position as director of Connection Blue, he insisted he had “nothing to do with this”.
“We’ve only just started selling rent rolls … we’ve taken no deposits at all,” he said.
Despite the fact that Connection Blue was registered last August, Mr Whittingham refused to comment on how many ‘rent rolls’ he’d sold to agents.
Consumer Affairs Victoria is concerned about the continuing conduct of Mr Whittingham and has issued legal proceedings in the Melbourne Magistrates Court, seeking an interim injunction against Mr Whittingham.
