For those who have been asking about this.......
Saviour On a Shoestring
http://www.abc.net.au/austory/transcripts/s204465.htm
02/11/2000
Hello I'm Caroline Jones. Tonight's program is about a West Australian woman whose story has been compared with that of Erin Brockovich the real life crusader featured in a Hollywood movie of the same name. Working from her small housing commission unit in Perth, Denise Brailey exposed a major financial scandal in which nearly seven thousand, mostly elderly, investors were defrauded of up to two hundred million dollars. Along the way she brought about one of Western Australia's most significant fraud investigations and caused the State Government acute embarrassment.
COLLEEN EGAN, The Australian: I think most of the revelations that have come out would not have come out without Denise Brailey.
DOMINIC CASELLA, developer: I consider her to be some sort of a hound that can smell trouble and she really delves and searches and gets to the bottom of it.
COLLEEN EGAN: She can smell a fraud a long long way away and I don't think you can learn that at University.
DOMINIC CASELLA: I was really concerned about what she knew and she was delving into all aspects of people I was associated with and all the property deals she seemed to know everything about them. 
DENISE BRAILEY: These deals are massive. If you have two hundred million disappearing from the economy of just one small State like Western Australia you have serious problems that effect the whole of Australia.
KAREN KENNEDY, daughter: Originally started because she got taken to the cleaners and lost everything through shonky real estate dealers and so now she wants to help anyone else that had that same thing.
DENISE BRAILEY: I think the perception people have of me is that I'm a middle-aged campaigner that's come out of nowhere. But in actual fact, there's a few surprises in my past. I mean I have had a myriad of jobs in a professional sense and I even did modelling in my early twenties.
KAREN KENNEDY: She left home when she was 16. She then got married. She had my brother when she was 17 and had me when she was 20. So she did all that very very young.
DENISE BRAILEY: When my marriage split up it was an amicable arrangement. A few years later he died and I really was left to fend for myself and raise the children as best as I could.
I didn't get very carried away by the modelling or what it offered. I saw the first instances of drugs and drug taking and it frightened me and I had a mission then to make sure that I really stayed away from that for the sake of my children.
I worked in Real Estate about ten years. I actually won top Rep in the State. But the difficulty was getting paid. The real estate agents in some cases weren't paying commissions. It wasn't as though I'd been diddled by one week's wages. This was three months. So I had to go and fight for the money I'd earned and I'd never been in a court before and I thought, why do I have to do this? But I also was extremely angry by then. I thought this is just not right.
I didn't have any money for a lawyer. One of the great things about being ripped off in this world is that suddenly you find you've got no pennies left in the bank for the Legal Profession. So I ended up getting a student of law who offered to assist me, for next to nothing I might add, and he seemed to find the right answers within a quaint old act called the Truck Act. It was virtually saying a man should be paid for work done. Simple as that.
The other lawyer was asking for the Judge to consider that I was a woman and the Truck Act referred to men. Fortunately, the Judge had a sense of humour and said to the Learned Friend "not in my Court you don't sir".
I had no other income from any other source while this was going on and for the first time in my life I had to apply for a pension. But it was very hard, because financially then I had hit absolute rock bottom. My own life was in a mess. I had to admit that to myself. It was in a mess and the only person in the whole world that was going to get me out of that was me.
It was a very significant win because it actually opened the flood gates for every other single rep to wander through the doors and start suing their employer whenever deductions were made without authority from their commissions which was the crux of the problem in Real Estate.
After the Court cases were dealt with, I then found the real estate profession themselves, the good people in there, would refer people to me like I was a self help service. I then found that there were 3 or 4 very very seriously aggrieved people, that were elderly, that had lost their homes through shonky real estate agents and I felt the old wave of what's right and wrong coming back.
They were just told by the Ministry of Fair Trading, go and get a lawyer. They had been fleeced like I had years before. They couldn't get a lawyer. They couldn't afford it. I understood perfectly how they felt. I felt I'd lived down this road before, it was almost deja vu.
News Story
Reporter: A win in Court today for widow Catarina Pando. Real Estate Jim Merdaffery found guilt of fraud and ordered to pay $47,000 damages. Denise Brailey from the Real Estate Consumers Association, which pursued the case, now intends to report Merdaffery who is still in the Industry to the Real Estate Board. 
DOUG SOLOMON, Lawyer: She started helping consumer victims of Real Estate problems and became dissatisfied with the Real Estate Institute processes for dealing with those complaints.
DENISE: RECA which is the Real Estate Consumer Association started really in 1996. I started realising that the people themselves needed to get organised. There was no consumer body, which was looking after the consumers.
RECA had been up and running for about a year and a half. I was getting media coverage because obviously there were serious problems out there.
About mid 98 I did a radio interview.
RICK LENS: When she therefore came on the radio 6PR out of Perth I heard a similar story that coincided with mine.
DENISE: Straight after I had a call and it was from an old man who said to me "Please lady can you help me? I've just lost my life savings". And he burst into tears. He'd had a heart attack a week before. He had no one to go to. He had been battling on his own for six months to try and get someone to pay attention to the difficulty he was experiencing. And what it was, was he'd lost his life savings and his income had stopped and Centrelink wouldn't give him an income, he and his wife. I was just horrified.
DOROTHY BURNS: Rick was very very worried, very upset. She very quickly arranged an appointment to come down and see us. Everything moved from there.
We showed her all our paper work and she was just amazed at what she read. 
RICK LENS: If you can look it up and find out what actually the story is about for non-payment of the monthly payments. I never received any money from them.
DENISE: So you haven't had any money for six months and you've got $150,000.
RICK: $150,000. All my savings went in there at the first mortgage on Shop 12.
DENISE BRAILEY: I then started to realise, that when I looked at his documents they weren't difficult to understand.
DENISE: It looks like they've taken something like 1.5 million on the entire project.
RICK: This lot of my money. Fifty years of my life savings. Not five years. Fifty years went astray just like that.
DENISE: So you're not in this mortgage on your own. There's five other.
Rick: No I'm in a group of six.
DENISE BRAILEY: I didn't understand a great deal about mortgages at that stage. I knew nothing about finance brokers. I certainly didn't know they were dealing in hundreds of millions of retirees' funds. I just knew that this man was in a group of six others.
So the following Monday I got in my car and went around to visit the other people. I made notes. I collected documents. I photocopied the documents. I drove around and gave them all their documents back and I delivered it all to the doors of Fair Trading.
At Fair Trading their answers were incredulous. They said, "yes we know this has been going on but there's nothing we can do" . I said, "what do you mean, there is nothing you can do. These people are without income. They can't get their capital back. They can't sell the properties. They're like a five star hotel in the middle of the Sahara Desert". Well they said "well I'm sorry, that's just the way it is, it's the law. The Law is flawed and there's nothing we can do".
I decided the only person I could ask questions with about the law is a lawyer and one I trust. That's when I went to Doug Solomon. He was the guiding light. He said "I've been fighting against this for some time. I've been putting in submissions to the Minister and I don't think they're listening to us." He said, "I don't want to get involved in the politics of it, but if you want some help, I will help this gentleman".
DOUG SOLOMON: So I explained to Denise if we were going to do anything, we'd need to get the whole group together.
DENISE BRAILEY: By contacting the original six, I found that some of them were in four or five other mortgages, which had also fallen into default. We realised then that over the next few months there were massive defaults and it wasn't just one broker.
DOUG SOLOMON: I tried to get some swift action from the Ministry of Fair Trading and the Finance Brokers' Supervisory Board but unfortunately my expression of concern at the lack of progress resulted in the phone going dead. The inspector hung up on me.
DENISE BRAILEY: As word of mouth started to spread and a few of the cases were put on to the media other people would contact me. I would go out to these people in their homes.
THEA DINES, Investor: My husband I have got ourselves into a terrible mess with a Mortgage Broker. All these papers that you can see here. We've lost hundred of thousands.
DENISE: The Port Mortgages were a system where the actual retirees were really thinking they were in a safe and secure investment. In fact the safe was the keyword.
THEA DINES: I don't understand fully even what's happened.
THEA DINES: I would have terrible collapsing states of crying, almost screaming, being frightened, not knowing what to do, where to turn. All we had was this terrible loss and this fiasco that was going on around us that really we didn't even understand how this mess could have happened and why it was allowed to happen.
DENISE BRAILEY: I started to see that where the risk was, was in the fact that the properties were heavily over-valuated. The Port Mortgage System was where a borrower would go and borrow money in order to buy a property. Say example, one million dollars and on the same day a lawyer would draw a two million dollar mortgage, and on the same day the people are being encouraged to put their money into this venture by being told that there was a three million dollar evaluation by a licensed valuer.
The fact is, the property was only ever worth the one million dollars and they put their money in blindly not knowing there was 120% mortgage being arranged by licensed brokers, licensed valuers and legal practitioners in a consortium to confuse the issue.
When I started looking into the Lens case and he had this money with Global Finance, I came across a borrower by the name of Dominic Casella. Dominic had something like 90 properties and he'd borrowed something like $45 million. I started to see that there were some inconsistencies with the way these deals have been set up.
DOMINIC CASELLA, Developer: I just didn't know where she was getting her information from. And especially in a couple of points that it was impossible for her to have found out. There were only four people that knew of a certain situation.DOMINIC CASELLA: I mean the way this woman's going on we're going to have major dramas.
DENISE BRAILEY: He was quite annoyed at the fact that I was not only delving into his and others business practices, but he saw it that I was causing the defaults in a system that he'd earned money out of for some years.
DOMINIC CASELLA: After one of my discussions with Denise, one of the things that she did mention to me there was reason for concern with a certain investigator in the Department of Fair Trading, and I thought to myself well in view of the fact that I don't like her and a lot of the borrowers didn't like her, a lot of the finance didn't like her, I thought it was a good opportunity to try to get at Denise by reporting the matter. I made a complaint, a written complaint to this particular person direct, this Investigator from the Board. I felt that this is one way that we can probably quieten her up and get her out of the system. Because she was as far as I could see, she just knew too much and I thought she was going to be major, major trouble.
DENISE BRAILEY: In dealing with bullies in the past, perhaps, that's what gave me the tenacity to have a go at these big boys. They need to be put in their place. What they've been doing is systematically raping, pillaging and plundering elderly people's bank accounts. And if there's anyone in Australia right now that thinks that's acceptable, I think we all need to move to another Island.
Denise: There is greed here. I'll tell you where the greed is. The greed is in the people that set up the deal.
DENISE BRAILEY: These people in and on the Board and in the Ministry knew of these problems, identified them and the disgusting scandal is they did not advise the public.
COLLEEN EGAN, The Australian: I don't think there would be a story known as the "Finance Brokers' Scandal" in Western Australia if it wasn't for Denise Brailey.
News Footage
DENISE BRAILEY: talking to Reporters: I am annoyed because I take my responsibility seriously and I represent nearly a thousand people in this mess.
DOUG SOLOMON, Lawyer: She was the only one doing what an eight million dollar budgets allocated to the Ministry of Fair Trading to do. Various Media Reports
... Western Australia's Fair Trading Minister, Doug Shave, is fighting for his political life...
... The State Government has caved into pressure and called an inquiry into the Finance Brokers' Supervisory Board...
... Evidence was given that Doug Shave had asked a staff member to lean on a Finance Broker who owed his former father-in-law $100,000...
...What the Opposition is demanding this table today is the resignation of the Minister for Fair Trading, Mr. Speaker...
Reporter: Have you thought about resigning over this?
Mr. Shave: No I haven't.
Reporter: You haven't given it any consideration.
Mr. Shave: No.
COLLEEN EGAN: The Government really don't like Denise Brailey. And you can understand why when you have a look at probably how they would have been running had they not had the finance brokers' scandal.
News footage:
... having already to defend his brother's Ken involvement, the Premier is clearly rattled...
COLLEEN EGAN: It's an example of how not to handle a scandal. They've refused to come clean at every turn and they underestimated Denise Brailey.
Media Reports
... report of The Gunning Committee of Inquiry Into the Finance Brokers Supervisory Board.
A Report that was commissioned by the WA Government has found that on all levels it failed to act to protect the investments of several thousand mostly elderly people. In all an estimated two hundred million dollars has been lost in failed real estate deals.
DENISE BRAILEY: I certainly have thought at times it was a David and Goliath battle. It still certainly is. The thing that keeps me going is there's people out there that need me each day so even I get days where I think "I don't want to do this any more I'm on a roller coaster let me off."
COLLEEN EGAN: It's quite incredible the stamina that she has and I think it must really wear and tear on her and I wonder how long she can do it for, I really do.
DOUG SOLOMON, Lawyer: The whole operation of RECA has been run on a complete shoestring. Indeed if people knew that so much of what it does has been done by Denise alone out of her own apartment, I think most would be astonished. Radio Report:
Graham Grubb pleaded guilty in June to stealing more than five million dollars from investors. In an address from the dock he said "I do feel for those people".
COLLEEN EGAN: I think it is rare that you find people who do a public service the way that she's doing and there's got to be motives there somewhere. She probably does like to get a few headlines. She probably does like to feel needed. But I think in the end, Denise is doing it because she thinks it needs to be done and she's the one doing it and she feels passionately about it.
CONNIE BERESFORD, Investor: Denise is a Saint, absolute Saint. Without her I don't know where we'd be today. There was nobody else wanting to help us. Nobody we could go to phone or write to. We were just on our own. Just left on our own. To our own devices. 
EVAN AND CONNIE BERESFORD, Investors: The worst part was as far as I'm concerned, apart from the worry of it, was having Connie so ill. She had a nervous breakdown. She was absolutely a zombie at times.
CONNIE BERESFORD: The absolute shock when we saw it on TV. The Grubb had gone into liquidation. I was stunned.
DENISE BRAILEY: Up to the present time there's been 16 people arrested and charged. I got a call from one of the police to say you must be pleased by now and I said "No that's 16 down and 31 to go".
DOMINIC CASELLA, Developer: It has made a lot of difference to the State from the point of view there's not many developments going ahead. Everything's at a stand still. Brokers are closing up. I think she's the cause, yes.
I would say a lot of people still would dislike her. I don't dislike her any more. I think she's a great person. I don't hold any grudge towards her, like I would have previously. But the Investors all adore her. They can't be wrong. I just still don't know why she's still doing it for such pittance money.
DENISE BRAILEY: The men are the worst hit. We've lost 28 to death in the last 18 months. And some of those I got pretty close to. There will be a medical reason but ask the families and the families will argue that quite strongly. Their parents or their father or their loved one was killed because they couldn't handle the embarrassment or the strain or the stress, the shear wanting to know what do you do next.
COLLEEN EGAN, "The Australian" I know that she certainly did help people concrete, get money back in their hands particularly before a lot of these deals went down and before the doors closed. And I think in the end I'd be very surprised if she doesn't get a lot more of their money back.
DOROTHY BURNS: She had an old car which needed repairs. It barely got her from here to there.
RICK LENS, Investor: And she was so much worried about transport. I felt it was my duty to help her out the best I could. Whatever we have Dot and I went to the bank and arranged finance to get her another car of a more recent model..
DENISE BRAILEY: I just felt a mixture of being very very happy but very humbled by the kindness shown by the Lens people.
KAREN KENNEDY, daughter: It's the biggest thing that she's ever been given in her life and she gives so much to other people. The car was one of the turning points for me to think , well wow hang on, they do care about what she's doing they do fight behind her, they don't just say, well alright we agree with you, you go and fight it. They actually do believe in what she's doing.
DENISE BRAILEY: There is absolutely no doubt in my mind that I'm out there making a difference and I can get quite emotional about all the thanks that's lumped upon me. It's quite overwhelming sometimes.
KAREN KENNEDY: To me more than anything because she has been Mum and Dad. She's been the only one there in our lives and I hope and I pray that there's enough of her inside me that I can become half the woman that she is now and I hope that my children will follow in her footsteps of her beliefs and her character.
DENISE BRAILEY: I'd like to think that all Australians can feel that they actually can go out there and make a difference, that they can somehow be inspired. You can virtually not have a great background, not have a brilliant education even if you're striving for one and actually have no money to do, I've certainly been in that category. But if you really have the will that something's so terribly wrong and you want to change it, it can be done.
Members of Denise Brailey's consumer group have been pressing her to stand as an independent in the upcoming state election.
Brailey has confirmed she will be a candidate, opposing Fair Trading Minister Doug Shave.
© 2014 ABC | Privacy Policy