Thursday, 2 August 2012
Salvatore Cortorillo
A Current Affair, February 9, 2012 - Love-rat Salvatore
A Current Affair, February 14, 2012 - Aussie Love Rat flees
Today Tonight, October 4, 2011 - Jilted lover's Justice
"Mafia" Man jailed for Fraud
http://news.ninemsn.com.au/national/8251317/mafia-man-jailed-for-fraud
A "parasite" who pretended he was in the mafia and scammed $155,000 from three women and a relative has been jailed for eight years.
Brisbane District Court Judge Leanne Clare told George Kenneth Hopes he had committed the "ultimate betrayal" of his four victims, some of whom were financially ruined by his deceit.
"You wooed the women and you conned the gentleman," she said on Thursday.
"You gained their trust with a web of lies so that you could cheat and steal from them.
"Throughout the whole period of offending you behaved as a master manipulator and a parasite."
The court was told Hopes was carrying on simultaneous relationships with his three female victims between 2000 and 2005, while at the same time telling his then-wife and four children he had to spend time away from home to work interstate.
The 39-year-old Buderim man led the women to believe he was in the mafia, and asked one for a loan so he could pay protection money.
He convinced another woman to sell her house and give him the proceeds, promising he would use the money to set them up in a new life in Western Australia.
He used the money he took from each of the women to maintain his relationships with the others.
Hopes also took $33,000 from the father of his current wife, telling him he needed it to pay a bogus fine for a drug conviction.
The court was told Hopes also used his story as a mafia man to terrorise and exert control over his victims.
Prosecutor Dennis Kinsella said Hopes drove two of the women to state forests and threatened them with a loaded gun, which police later discovered did not work.
He forced one woman to put the gun to her head and pull the trigger, then threatened to kill her himself.
He told the other woman he would kill himself if she didn't reveal who she had told about his mafia ties.
The court was told the women were still recovering from their ordeal.
"Your crimes were cruel and callous," Judge Clare said.
"You exploited their care for you.
"Yours was the ultimate betrayal of trust and one that is likely to leave lifelong scars on the people hurt by you."
Hopes pleaded guilty to 11 charges, including threatening violence and fraud.
He was sentenced to a total of eight years' jail but will be eligible for parole in June next year.
He has already served 10 months behind bars.
Publishing icon Nene King says she was fleeced by conmen
Read the following article about how Nene King was conned.
Friends fleeced Victorian Greek community members of millions
MEMBERS of the Victorian Greek community robbed of millions are likely to lose out.
The money was stolen in a property fraud by two brothers.
County Court Judge Michael McInerney jailed John Vouranis, 41, of Rye, for a minimum of three years for defrauding his close relatives and friends of more than $4 million.
His brother, George Vouranis, 39, also of Rye, was jailed for at least a year after defrauding a family friend of $583,000.
The judge said nobody appeared to know where the money had gone.
Yesterday the court heard John Vouranis also tried to fraudulently obtain $1.7 million in bank loans using details of family and friends without their knowledge.
The offending happened between 2004 and 2005.
Judge McInerney said John Vouranis' offending displayed a serious level of criminality and added that none of the loans had been repaid.
George Vouranis pleaded guilty to two counts of obtaining property by deception.John Vouranis pleaded guilty to 15 counts of obtaining financial advantage and property by deception and one count of attempting to obtain financial advantage by deception.
Judge McInerney sentenced John Vouranis to a maximum of 4 1/2 years in prison and George Vouranis to a maximum term of three years.
Fraudster George Bavelos jailed for six years for fleecing fiance
A DIRTY rotten scoundrel who fleeced his fiancé and her mother of their life savings was jailed today for six years by a judge who described him as a "cruel, rapacious criminal".
Judge Michael McInerney said George Bavelos claimed he was a wealthy international banker, investor and solicitor but he was in fact a callous, unrepentant liar, fraudster and predator.
Sentencing Bavelos in the County Court Judge McInerney said Bavelos beguiled teacher Helen Biamis and her retired hairdresser mother, Triana Boubis, with stories of wealth and his life as a Geneva-based international banker.
The judge said Bavelos talked to Mrs Boubis about personal issues and her savings and she came to trust him as an advisor.
"He was friendly, he was wealthy, he was able to be confided in, he had the ability as a stockbroker-solicitor and had a great deal of money,'' Judge McInerney said.
In reality Bavelos, 52, was an unemployed divorcee and serial fraudster who lived with his mum in Campbellfield."As he told her he made more money in an hour than some people would make in a lifetime.''
In a three-year period Bavelos ripped off $1.14 million from Mrs Boubis and Ms Biamis, claiming he had invested it overseas.
In December last year Bavelos was found guilty by a jury of nine counts of obtaining property by deception and one count of attempting to obtain property by deception.
Judge McInerney said Bavelos "lied with abandon'' at his trial, tendered forged documents, produced false receipts and continued to claim the victims' money was safely invested overseas.
The judge said he had never before commented to a jury on its verdict but told them the evidence presented by Bavelos was an insult to their intelligence.
Judge McInerney said he would refer the case to the Attorney General for possible perjury charges.
Bavlos manipulted the Greek culture, the judge said, to befuddle the women who were from a similar cultural background.
His callousness was illustrated by booking Mrs Boubis and Ms Biamis into the Ritz Hotel in London for a week but they did not realise their stolen investments was paying the $31,000 bill.
He also took them to stay at a Scottish castle which he pretended to own and the $20,000 was again met from the savings of the two women.
"He was cruelly using the the castle to further the ruse which allowed him to attain his victim's money,'' Judge McInerney said.
Judge McInerney said Bavelos disposed of the victims' fund in a "flagrant and callous'' manner.
"Such callousness is highlighted by passing himself off as their trusted financial advisor, respective future son-in-law and husband Bavelos was depleting their assets at a vast rate, often by way of spending upon the most outrageous extravagance,'' he said.
The judge said between August 2004 and February 2007 a total of $1,130,000 was deposited into a Bavelos account and totally dissipated.
Between August 2004 and October 2006 Bavelos deposited $217,000 into his personal Visa account and spent the lot.
In her victim impact statement Mrs Boubis said: ''He proved to be nothing more than a thief of the cruelest type, who walked into our lives to plunder and steal''.
The judge remarked that the victims had to pay a private investigator to expose Bavelos because of Victoria Police's policy of do-it-yourself fraud investigations.
When they approached Victoria Police 'fraud desk' they were told that because such investigations were complex and difficult they had to come up with the proof they had been fleeced.
Judge McInerney set a maximum term of nine years and two months.
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