Unique Estate's Nicolette van Wijngaarden ordered to surrender passports
The former director of a collapsed Byron Bay-based luxury real estate agency, Nicolette van Wijngaarden has been ordered to surrender her two passports under strict bail conditions.
The real estate agent specialising in luxury properties has been charged with 15 fraud offences after she allegedly misused $3.69 million.
Nicolette van Wijngaarden, 44, was the director of Unique Estates, a boutique real estate agency now under liquidation which specialised in selling multi-million dollar properties in NSW, Victoria and Queensland.
She is accused of fraudulently dealing with home deposits paid to her company.
Ms van Wijngarden is also accused of "falsely representing" that $1,165,876 from rental properties would remain in the Unique Estates trust account until the money was paid to the property owners.
The charges span from May 2016 to February 2018.
According to court documents, the NSW Director of Public Prosecutions took over the case in September.
Ms van Wijngaarden was excused from attending Sydney's Downing Centre Local Court when the case was mentioned yesterday.
It is set to return to the Sydney Downing Centre Local Court on January 31 when Ms van Wijngaarden is also excused from appearing on that date.
She has had to hand in both her Australian and Dutch passports as a condition of bail.
She is forbidden from entering any international airport or other point of departure from Australia.
She is also required to report to St Kilda police station once a week, given she now resides in Elwood.