ASIC Bans Victorian Developer for Five Years

A Victorian property developer and investor has been banned by ASIC for five years after companies she was involved with failed owing nearly $5 million to creditors. 

Kylie Jane Campbell, of Port Melbourne, was a director of three companies—Englobo Group Holdings Pty Ltd, Agritrade Fund Pty Ltd and Entertainment Group Pty Ltd—between June 2017 and May 2022. 

ASIC said that at the time of its decision to enact the ban, the three companies owed a combined total of $4.55 million. 

Of that, $3.3 million was owed to 21 unsecured creditors, $1.25 million to a small business, $20,271 to the Australian Tax Office and $12,465 to employees. 

Englobo Group Holdings was the subject of a winding-up order in 2019 and appointed liquidators from Rodgers Reidy in March 2019. 

Agritrade Fund Pty Ltd went into liquidation in 2021, appointing liquidators SV Partners, while Entertainment Group Pty Ltd was wound up and liquidators appointed in February 2018.

In disqualifying Campbell, ASIC said that she “did not know or understand her duties as a director and failed to discharge those duties”. 

ASIC said Campbell had failed to assist liquidators by not submitting records or company reports or ensuring each company complied with statutory obligations to lodge income tax returns and other statements with the ATO.

In 2021, the director of Consumer Affairs Victoria launched criminal action against Campbell as director of BSM Realty Melbourne Pty Ltd, for alleged breaches of Victorian estate agent laws. 

It said that Campbell misused $106,509.90, which was meant to be held in a trust account.

Consumer Affairs Victoria said Campbell had transferred $100,000 from BSM Realty’s trust account to pay the deposit for a property she purchased on Lonsdale Street in Melbourne, and withdrew another $6509.90 and transferred it into her personal account.

In a separate case, in November 2022, Campbell faced charges of causing a deficiency in her company’s trust account and wrongful conversion of funds.

She was convicted on the charges after an eight-day trial in the Melbourne County Court. 

Campbell was sentenced to a three-year community corrections order and ordered to complete 300 hours of unpaid community work. 

She was also ordered to repay $94,000 to the Victorian Property Fund for money paid to compensate her former clients. 

“This conduct is also a disservice to the wider industry, risking damage to its reputation and that of the majority of agents who fulfil their legal responsibilities,” Consumer Affairs Victoria director Nicole Rich said at the time.