Joseph Matthew Villani, 42, faced Shepparton Magistrates’ Court in an unsuccessful bail application on 102 charges — 95 counts of obtaining property by deception and seven counts of committing an indictable offence while on bail.
The court heard he allegedly scammed people throughout Victoria and into NSW by taking money for boxes of tomatoes, hay bales, lambs and even a cattle crush between March 4 last year and May 24 this year, but not delivering them.
The amounts people had paid for tomatoes were as low as $25 for a box of tomatoes, but ranged into the thousands for hay, with one buyer paying $20,000 for hay.
The court heard all the items were sold on Facebook marketplace or Gumtree.
Shepparton Crime Investigation Unit’s Detective Senior Constable Nathan Berryman told the court he initially heard about a hay bale scam from Benalla, but further digging identified many more victims.
He said he had spoken to more than 100 victims of the scams and “it’s been the same old case with every one” where they had paid money but the items had not been delivered.
He said a lot of online messages between Mr Villani and the buyers spoke of goods being organised to be delivered on a specific date, followed by messages from Mr Villani about problems with transport, before he stopped responding to the messages.
Det Sen Constable Berryman said Mr Villani lived on a rural property at Toolamba that belonged to a family trust, but that a look through his bank accounts did not show any money coming in or out of them for the property.
While the charges only allege “sales” up to May 24, Det Sen Constable Berryman said he still had to contact other people who had deposited money into Mr Villani’s bank accounts.
One deposit of $50 was made the day before he faced court.
The officer said, potentially, Mr Villani could have up to $94,000 worth of deposits into his bank account from the scam.
Det Sen Constable Berryman told the court that when interviewed, Mr Villani told police he grew the tomatoes and made hay at his property but he “had an unfortunate year last year” with the hay becoming mouldy, the tomatoes getting diseases, and the lambs he was going to sell dying.
Mr Villani told police he had tried to identify the people he had received money from and return it to them, however Det Sen Constable Berryman said he did not believe him as the money had been spent and Mr Villani only had $75 in his bank accounts.
When questioned about where the money had gone, Det Senior Constable Berryman said Mr Villani’s bank accounts showed a lot of money had been spent for an online psychic and online gambling accounts.
Det Sen Constable Berryman said many of the people who had allegedly been scammed by Mr Villani were victims of the October floods and needed to buy hay to feed their cattle.
When arguing for Mr Villani to be given bail, his solicitor Luke Slater said a prohibition on the use of the internet could help eliminate risk of further offending, but this was rejected by the magistrate.
Mr Slater stressed the possible delays in the case finalising and said it was “not a forgone conclusion” that he would be jailed if he pleaded guilty to the charges.
No pleas have been entered for the charges in court so far.
Magistrate Marita Altman refused bail, and Mr Villani will return to court in September.
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