Widow Takes On $9m Fight

The Sunday Age

Sunday November 14, 2004

PAUL HEINRICHS

A 71-year-old Apollo Bay widow has begun Supreme Court action to freeze the assets of the connections of Geelong's Grove Conveyancing Services, which closed this month owing what Geelong police say is between $6 million and $9 million.

But solicitors for Mavis Avery, who is owed $414,203, say they have identified only a little more than $200,000 in the firm's accounts and belonging to its principals to cover potential losses by 150 to 200 people.

Grove Conveyancing Services was one of Geelong's busiest conveyancers, and also carried out work in Werribee and Apollo Bay. Philip Curtis, Mrs Avery's solicitor, said the only major asset available for redress appeared to be a $130,000 equity in Grove's former headquarters at 60 Sydney Parade, Geelong. The premises, which were shared with Boston Lawyers, are now shut and files have been removed by Geelong police and Consumer Affairs investigators.

Police have interviewed the principal, Robert Ewen Day, 60, and his brother Geoff. The biggest single sum owed to one person by the firm is understood to be more than $600,000. Fiona Lynch of Lara, whose husband was killed crossing a Geelong road last year, believes she stands to lose $225,000.

After the lodging of a Supreme Court writ by Mrs Avery, Justice David Harper on November 1 and Justice Bernard Bongiorno on Friday issued injunctions freezing the assets of Robert Day and his business partner, Alanna Mary Boston, until November 26.

Grove's collapse is the third major financial hit for Geelong in the past 15 years, following the Pyramid Building Society disaster of the early 1990s and a $9 million fraud by former mayor Frank de Stefano.

It comes after a sustained boom in the city driven by the waterfront redevelopment, the widening of Geelong Road, the Avalon Airport expansion and promised big projects such as the fast rail link to Melbourne and a city bypass road.

Mayor Ed Coppe says that although it might be severe on many individuals, he does not expect Grove's crash to cast the sort of pall Pyramid left over the city. Pyramid, he said, had functioned almost as a major bank.

Detective Senior Sergeant Rod Lloyd said several people who had lost big sums in Pyramid had now been caught in Grove's crash.

One was an elderly man who lost his retirement savings in Pyramid and now felt guilty because his daughter had put money into Grove on his recommendation. Police have been inundated with telephone calls from angry Geelong residents, some of them demanding police charge someone soon. But Senior Sergeant Lloyd believes the investigation, being carried out by his detectives jointly with the major fraud squad and forensic accountants, will take 12 months to two years.

The firm was begun in 1988 by Robert Day, who was joined as a partner in 1990 by Alanna Boston, wife of Geelong solicitor Philip Boston.

Senior Sergeant Lloyd said problems were discovered by Grove's administrative staff who were left to respond to customer requests while Robert Day was on holiday in England in early October.

They asked solicitor Philip Boston to help, and after looking at the books, he called in police about October 18.

Mr Boston has issued a formal statement seeking to distance himself, his company and his wife from Grove.

Law Institute chief executive officer John Cain said a check by institute investigators of the Boston Lawyers firm books showed it did not appear to be involved.

Senior Sergeant Lloyd said the issues with Grove had arisen where people had sold their homes and reinvested their money through Grove, or left the titles with Grove. There were allegations that the titles had been used as collateral, or transferred wrongly.

He said police had not at this stage detected any malpractice by banks or real estate agents.

Grove Conveyancing was not a member of the Victorian branch of the Australian Institute of Conveyancers, which is a self-regulatory body.

Its Victorian president, Pauline Barrow, said there had been complaints about Grove going back to the late 1990s, which she had referred to authorities. But she feared they had been "lost in the system".

Following the Grove crash, the State Government on Wednesday announced terms of reference for a review of the regulation of the Victorian conveyancing industry. These are currently provided for under the Legal Practice Act.

© 2004 The Sunday Age

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