A Baldivis woman has been fined over $11,000 after working as a property manager without a registration before submitting fake documents to conceal her wrongdoing.
In the Perth Magistrates Court recently, Jayde Mia Stuart (who also uses the surname Lawrence) was fined $10,500 and convicted in her absence of three charges of breaching the Real Estate and Business Agents Act 1978 (WA).
She was also ordered to pay $591.50 in court costs.
The court heard that Ms Stuart – who has a criminal record that includes convictions for fraud and stealing – continued working as a property manager for almost six months after her registration lapsed in October 2022.
While unregistered, Ms Stuart applied for a property manager position requiring sales representative certification.
After being hired, she failed to provide a valid registration number and when confronted by her new employer, presented a forged certificate bearing the signature of a former Consumer Protection Commissioner.
Ms Stuart then contacted Consumer Protection, falsely claiming to have paid for the renewal of her registration in October 2022.
When asked to provide proof of payment, she submitted a heavily redacted bank statement that concealed the year of a transaction dated “18 Oct”, which had instead been paid in 2019.
Commissioner for Consumer Protection Trish Blake said Ms Stuart would have known her actions were illegal given she had previously worked in the industry as a registered sales representative.
“Our licensing system safeguards tenants and landlords by guaranteeing only competent and qualified professionals work in the Western Australian real estate industry,” Ms Blake said.
“Instead of renewing her registration as required, Ms Stuart embarked on a series of deceptions. This began with her employment, where she needed to provide proof of registration, and culminated in her attempting to mislead our licensing staff by doctoring a bank statement to falsely indicate payment.
“Tenants, landlords and real estate agencies can find out whether the real estate agents and sales representatives they are engaging with are licensed by using Consumer Protection’s online licence search.
“Help us protect consumers and the integrity of the industry by reporting any suspicions of unlicensed real estate activity to Consumer Protection.”
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