Gordon Park estate agent Martin Jones banned for life

A Gordon Park real estate agent has been banned from working in the real estate industry for life and ordered to pay more than $80,000 in fines, compensation and costs after the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) took disciplinary action against him in the Queensland Civil and Administrative Tribunal (QCAT).

Martin David Moala Jones was co-jointly fined $15,000 with his company, Diligent Property Management Pty Ltd, and ordered to pay $18,087 in compensation and $47,767 in costs.

Mr Jones and his company were permanently disqualified from the industry and Mr Jones has been permanently banned from being an executive officer of any corporation licensed under the Property Occupations Act 2014.

The tribunal heard that Diligent Property Management’s corporation licence expired in May 2016 and Mr Jones had failed to renew it but had continued to operate the business until June 2017.

In November 2016, the OFT received a complaint from a property owner who believed he had not received all the rent money he was entitled to from Diligent Property Management.

The OFT investigation established a number of failures to comply with the law including that Mr Jones had not kept proper records, had not been properly appointed by his clients, and had mismanaged trust money.

Mr Jones’s failures led to a loss of his clients’ money. The OFT was forced to appoint a receiver over the trust property which found the trust account was overdrawn by more than $18,000.

Clients were compensated for their loss by the Agents Financial Administration claim fund, which is administered by the OFT.

Fair Trading Executive Director Brian Bauer welcomed the tribunal’s decision to permanently disqualify Mr Jones from holding a real estate agent licence or certificate.

“There is no place in the real estate industry for people who do not comply with the law,” Mr Bauer said.

“People trust real estate agents with their most valuable asset, their property, and the OFT will continue to take agents to task if they are found to be doing the wrong thing.”