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Staff Reporter
A Victorian man, who claimed to be an agent’s representative, has been fined $17,000 for organising the marketing of a property while holding prior convictions for dishonesty offences in Queensland.
The conviction is the latest twist in the story which broke in January, when a Sunbury real estate agent was fined $22,000 for underquoting and running ‘misleading advertising’.
Henri Claude Phillipe Du Pont pleaded guilty in Melbourne Magistrates’ Court to breaching the Estate Agents Act 1980 by acting as an agent’s representative on the sale of a historic property near Colac, between January and March 2011.
According to a statement from Consumer Affairs Victoria, Mr Du Pont arranged for licensed estate agent Du Pont Sung International Properties Pty Ltd to sign an exclusive sale authority regarding the property with the owner.
Mr Du Pont also told another agent that he would work with him to arrange printing brochures, advertising in newspapers and on television and radio and putting up a sign board.
He then met with the agent at Colac to talk about the marketing of the property.
Mr Du Pont acted as an agent’s representative when he was not eligible to act as an agent’s representative because, in 2007, he was convicted of dishonesty offences in Queensland and sentenced to nine months’ jail.
The court convicted Mr Du Pont and fined him $17,000 with costs reserved.
In a previous court action, Du Pont Sung International Properties Pty Ltd (while trading as ‘The Professionals Sunbury’) was fined $10,000 for engaging in misleading price advertising in relation to the sale of two properties in 2010.
Christine Parsons, a director of the company and a licensed estate agent, was fined a total of $12,000 for breaches of the Estate Agents Act 1980, including engaging in misleading price advertising.
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