It is a shame that the ABCs Four Corners’ State Control (broadcast on 14 March 2022) did not include the story of campaign to save AHIMSA house owned by Ross Taylor (now deceased). This was a good example of the maladministration in the Public Trustee’s office that affected the whole of the community. The ABC claimed Friends of Ross did not have sufficient ‘vision’ (meaning video) … we gave them plenty of vision, some video and much of our time, but perhaps we were not quite what they wanted.
Four Corners chose instead to lead with American mega star Britney Spears and her $$$millions being placed under the control of her father and his attorney. Pretty crass when you think of how many ordinary people are being ripped off. The US is no model for Australia. The United State’s system seems to be mostly privatised. They don’t even have a public trustee.
Anne Connolly’s best interviews were with ordinary people who through bad luck or miscalculation had ended up under control of the Public Trustee for financial matters and Public Guardian for health matters. It was pretty hard to watch how mean the public trustee’s office is, particularly how the PTO took Siham Benz in WA to court claiming she stole her mother’s money and then used her mother’s assets to build a case against Siham.
Of course police in Queensland support the PTO at every turn as shown in this video when we discovered that Ross Taylor had been abducted by the Public Guardian in cahoots with the Public Trustee’s office. I suppose we should be thankful they did not arrest us. When the fraudsters at AHIMSA tried to have us arrested, they failed there too. However Will Marcus, the architect entrenched at AHIMSA and corruptly claiming one sixth of the building did take a civil action for assault against me. That too was thrown out of court.
I estimate that I spent about $12,000 trying to defend the vulnerable Ross Taylor and AHIMSA house plus countless hours over 11 years of trying to dig him out of the hole created by the fraudsters and the PTO. I am pretty sure Bernie Neville spent even more trying to help his friend. Ros Mirciov and the Committee to Expose the Public Trustee also put a lot of energy into caring for Ross and trying to to correct the injustice. This gets lost in the whole mess and was not brought out sufficiently in the Four Corners program. Instead of leading with Britney Spears Four Corners should have looked at all the volunteer work done by community organisations in Australia trying to address this problem. Much of this work has been undervalued and wasted by elected MPs and Attorneys General.
Conflict of Interest
The outsourcing of financial functions by the Public Trust Office Investment Board to RB Morgan‘s to invest people’s money surely must be illegal, corrupt, a conflict of interest or all three. Does Four Corners realise that, by law, the Public Trustee must invest in a Common Fund. I suppose they must.
Was the Public Trustee represented on the board of the Queensland Investment Corporation, a statutory body owned by the Queensland government? This is what Chief Executive Officer at Qld Investment Corporation, Damien Frawley, had to say on August 22, 2017 about now disgraced Qld Public Trustee, Peter Carne:
Peter (Carne) and I have long been associated through the Queensland Community Foundation Board. His passion for philanthropy and for growing awareness of the importance of philanthropy in the corporate world has benefited many organisations beyond those where he has a formal role. – Damien Frawley, Chief Executive Officer at Qld Investment Corporation, August 22, 2017.
Previous Attorney General, Jarrod Bleijie, set up one of many inquiries into the Public Trustee as long ago as 2013. About that time Bleijie’s CEO told Bernie Neville (Ross Taylor’s EPA) and me that we needed ‘to get over having a Labor appointee as Public Trustee’. Bleijie is wrong. We do care that the Public Trustee is a political appointment.
Neither Labor nor LNP want to fix the problem and will continue to have inquiries that do little or nothing. Currently there is yet another inquiry in train this time instigated by the latest Attorney General, Shannon Fentiman, who refused to be interviewed by Four Corners. Just one of many Attorney’s General and Public Trustee officials who refused to be interviewed. These are public officials that must be held accountable for any reform of the system to be possible.
State will not act to fix Public Trustee
I didn’t see anyone come up with a solution on State Control. This was disappointing. They should place the Queensland Public Trustee back into the public service, properly regulated and make financial management of ordinary people’s estates free of charge. But that is too much like socialism for either the LNP or Labor. Campbell Newman swept aside 14,000 public servants when he was Premier making such a solution impossible if Labor did not rebuild the public service. Something they have chosen not to do. Workers themselves would have to do that … but there is little sign of the class consciousness necessary to achieve that kind of result at the present. There are only pockets of resistance by a variety of groups like the Committee to Expose the Public Trustee, many spending their own money to defend the vulnerable.
Please any corrections/comments down below.
Ian Curr
15 March 2022
State Control is on iView @ https://iview.abc.net.au/video/NC2203H006S00
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Chronology of Campaign to Save AHIMSA house – financial dealings relating to Ross Taylor properties including AHIMSA house (2003 – 2015)
2003 March Ellen Taylor (wife) died. September, House property 433 Mains Road Sunnybank transferred into name of Sabdia, former accountant
Sale of 2 units at Labrador
Bought Commercial property at 24 Horan Street, West End to be used as a community centre called AHIMSA House. Finance from Bank of Queensland. Brian laver acting as CEO.
Brian Laver assumed Power of Attorney (however no paperwork substantiating this was ever found), Laver acted as CEO of AHIMSA house, taking rent monies from tenants without banking same. Taking up to $2,000 per week for his own use. Ross received $200 per week and was challenged if he asked for more.
Coopers Plains property sold
Refinance of loan through Barry Sims from Challenger Bank. False and mis-leading figures supplied to acquire the loan.
Rigby Solicitors at Noosa acted on behalf of Carl Ross Taylor Coopers Plains property sold.
Laver had Ross sign a number of blank cheques when he was in hospital. Laver believing that Ross would not survive.
2008 July , 16th Letter from Will Marcus acknowledging receipt $168,032 (the money should have been paid to Ross Taylor as owner of the building) and Marcus’ email admits that his company owed Ross $29,000. Marcus expected to receive 1/6 of the $1.2M loan because he claimed he owned 1/6 of the building, but never did. When tested in court Marcus’ claim failed. The $168,032 was a cheque drawn on a Westpac Bank. The manager at West End branch admitted to Bernie Neville that the cheque was fraudulent.
Ian Curr checked AHIMSA accounts and discovered discrepancies including the fraudulent cheque payment to Will Marcus.
Bernie Neville appointed power of attorney. Bernie arranged for tenancies of the building, however the public trustee never followed through to put leases in place.
Bernie and Ross approached Caxton Legal service for assistance which resulted in the public trustee of Queensland being appointed as administrator.
Ellen Taylor’s Jewellery and Ross’s car taken by Brian Laver. Dutton Park police took action to have car returned. But not the jewellery.
Policemen Andrew O’Dea and Chad Tracey at Dutton Park Police advised by Bernie Neville of theft of car, jewellery, monies, by Brian Laver and fraudulent cheque (WBC) to Will Marcus
2009, July, 30th Interim order QCAT
2009, October, 12 QCAT order PT as administrator.
November, Office of Public Guardian appointed as Adult guardian
ACAT Assessment of Ross Taylor
2009 (page 5 of needs assessment) Office of the Public Guardian appointed for health, accommodation, contact/visit, service provision and legal matters (not relating to finance or property matters)
2010, November, 11 – Offer by Sam Watson (on behalf of Link Up) to lease from March 2011 along with proposal to purchase for/from Link-up and Indigenous Land council. Offer to lease 24 Horan Street West End with offer to buy at market value ($2M to $2.5M) by Sam Watson on behalf of Link up. Ian Campbell(PT office ) and Bernie Neville present at meeting. This offer was ignored by the Public Trustee thus breaching his fiduciary responsibility to Mr. Taylor.
Property at 24 Horan Street, West End sold for $970,000. The lender was Challenger Bank through Perpetual Trustee. The public trustee states that it was Challenger who sold the property and that the solicitor acting for the lender, Norton Rose, were advised of the offer but never acknowledged the offer by Link Up (of which Sam Watson was a board member).
2011, June, 7th Application Recovery for repossession of property of AHIMSA House. Challenger and another (Perpetual trustees company limited v Argo projects Pty. Ltd, Argo Navis Pty. Ltd., William Matthew Marcus.
2011, July 1st Supreme court hearing J Lyons Challenger and another (Perpetual trustees company limited v Argo projects Pty. Ltd, Argo Navis Pty. Ltd., William Matthew Marcus.
2011 November, 18 Report obtained from James O”Regan QC stating that
“ 49. In my view, on the basis of these uncontroversial factors alone, Mr Taylor has reasonable prospects of establishing that the Sabdias occupied a position whereby they were able to influence Mr Taylor” .
This opinion was positive and action should have been taken to recover the family home from Mr. Taylor’s past accountant, Sabdia. Action was never taken to recover the family home situated at 433 Mains Road Sunnybank/MacGregor
November, 24 Horan Street West end sold
2012, December, 19th ACAT assessment. Recommended aged care placement
2013 late or very early 2014.
Chad Tracey and Adam Kynoch (Dutton Park police) visited CRT at Sunnybank. Knew of complaint but had never met Ross Taylor.
2014 September, 11th ACAT assessment. Recommended aged care placement. Barrister Diane Pendegast, (acted pro bono in December, 2014 in QCAT directions hearing) advised that there was nothing in this report to warrant placement in secure aged care facility. Diane was the previous Adult Guardian. Directions hearing.
October … moved to RSL Tantula Rise, Alexandra Headlands placed in a high care dementia unit.
December, 4th – David Manwaring (lawyer) appointed as separate representative for Carl Ross Taylor
2015
March 20th Public Trustee consented to their OT doing an assessment on Ross
April 20th – Letter from QCAT Louise Logan Principal Registrar re inconsistent outcomes…..consultation with support network.
April 27th – Guardianship Report signed by Tim Brown for Lia Pool @@@@@@@ Page 4 needs assessment by OT and PT disability support officer????
June 2nd – Report by Ms Ann Berquier, Psychologists, states that Mr. Taylor is more likely to have had a stroke than to be suffering from dementia. Recommends that Ross be referred to a gerontolist.
On 28th August, 2015 the office of the public guardian provided a letter with a needs assessment, The report contained false and misleading information supplied by Public Trustee and the Public Guardian. Photographs included in their report were over two years old. The letter from the guardian states “This report is released so that you may provide your views to the Public Guardian in relation to Mr. Taylor’s needs and to assist you in developing a comprehensive care plan.” The decision was made on the 24th August, 2015, by the guardian office, prior to Mr. Taylor’s support network being asked to comment.
September, letter received from the OPG advising of the decision made on the 24th August.
[Taken from https://www.academia.edu/31934218/Taylor_Carl_Ross…..Qqueensland_Public_Trustee.docx_TIME_LINE?fbclid=IwAR0p9uYnUFNCoxbjpxpMi9gsdZNEa_V5Xd4dnodwq0CAVu9_dc6w6Kj3Zps … the timeline was put together by Doug Young].
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