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Former real estate agent Sarah Dougan has been ordered to return from the US to appear in person for sentencing in NSW, after pleading guilty to stealing over $500,000.
NSW Fair Trading has successfully upheld an appeal in its decade-long pursuit of Sarah Dougan, the former Byron Bay real estate agency director, in a major $1/2 million real estate fraud case.
Now residing in the US, Dougan is required to face sentencing for misappropriating $540,000 from the Belle Property Byron Bay trust account.
The case started in 2009, when Dougan, who was then a mortgage broker, moved from Sydney to Byron Bay, reskilling as a real estate agent and director of Belle Property.
With millions of dollars in debt, Dougan transferred thousands of dollars from the agency’s trust account and used false documents to cover it up.
In 2011, the Belle Property Group, under which Dougan was franchised, alerted NSW Fair Trading following suspicion and anomalies in the branch trust accounts and ceased all activities with her.
The watchdog investigation found that the accounts were missing over $500,000.
In 2012, Dougan fled to the US, where she has resided ever since.
There, she rebuilt a life as the CEO of a medical testing lab, got married, raised five children, and settled into a multimillion-dollar mansion.
Meanwhile, in 2013, authorities issued a warrant for her arrest and ordered her to come back to Australia.
Despite the warrant, Dougan claimed she was unaware of her fugitive status before 2017 when she tried to apply for a permanent visa in the US.
Upon learning of the charges, she agreed to plead guilty and informed the court that she had repaid the $367,000 owed to the state of NSW and has remained in the US.
Despite pleading guilty to the offences in the Parramatta Local Court in 2020 and 2021, Dougan failed to turn up to court for sentencing in 2023.
An NSW Fair Trading spokesperson told REB that Dougan has been unsuccessful in appealing a decision by a magistrate who refused to sentence her by audiovisual link, with the court acknowledging there is a real likelihood of considering a sentence of imprisonment.
“NSW Fair Trading was awarded costs by the NSW Court of Appeal and is now considering options to facilitate Ms Dougan in appearing in person in NSW for sentencing.”
“A warrant for Ms Dougan’s arrest remains outstanding,” the spokesperson said.
NSW Fair Trading Commissioner, Natasha Mann, told REB that Dougan’s case has demonstrated NSW Fair Trading’s persistence, underscoring its commitment to strict enforcement and industry accountability.
“In this case the defendant pleaded guilty to serious charges involving a significant amount of money being held in trust for consumers, so it is entirely appropriate the sentencing for those offences occurs in NSW in person.”
“NSW Fair Trading has patiently waited to bring this matter to a conclusion, and our persistence sends a clear message to real estate agents of how seriously the regulator takes cases where there has been a complete disregard for industry rules,” Mann said.
Phil Tarrant, CEO of property management platform Managed, said that trust account abuse in the industry have been destroying confidence and costing Australians millions.
“Trust account abuse like this undermines the very foundation of confidence that landlords and tenants place in property professionals,” Tarrant said.
“When large sums go missing, it’s not just a financial crime – it erodes trust, delays payments, and can leave everyday Australians out of pocket.”
“This has been going on far too long. Ten per cent of the real estate industry has already chosen secure automated payments over trust accounting to safeguard against this sort of crime. It is time the rest of the industry took note,” Tarrant concluded.
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