As if Australia’s housing market wasn’t enough of a hot mess, a former real estate sales representative has been caught misusing a tenant’s funds to pay the rent and bond on her own rental home and forging receipts to cover it up. It’s giving reverse Robin Hood, where you just take from other renters.
Dianne Sandra Huggins, of Mandurah WA, has been fined and reprimanded after it was found she used $2,700 from her employer’s trust fund to pay the bond and outstanding rent on her own rental property.
WA’s State Administrative Tribunal (SAT) heard Huggins resided in a rental property managed by her employer where the required $1,587.20 bond had not been paid. After the property owner’s decision to switch agencies, she misappropriated $2,700 from the agency’s trust fund — originally paid as bond and rent on an unrelated property by a different tenant — and redirected it to cover the bond and some outstanding rent on her own rental property.
An internal investigation was sparked when an audit found a shortfall in the trust account.
You know what they say: real estate is all about location, location, and in this case, misappropriation.
On April 9 2025, Huggins was pulled up for making unauthorised withdrawals from her employer’s trust account and failing to act honestly. Upon her resignation, the agency also recovered the missing $2,700 from her final salary payment.
“When confronted, Ms. Huggins provided a fabricated bank receipt purporting to show her husband’s payment of $2,700 to the agency. She later admitted to creating the fraudulent document by altering an existing receipt,” the SAT said in a statement on Tuesday.
Commissioner for Consumer Protection Trish Blake condemned Huggins’ conduct, observing the actions undermined trust in the real estate industry.
“Knowing full well the unpaid bond would be discovered by the new managing agency, she engaged in a series of deceptive acts, including misappropriating another tenant’s funds and forging a bank receipt,” Blake said.
“Real estate agencies hold substantial sums of money in trust for tenants and property owners, necessitating strict regulatory compliance and routine audits of these accounts.
“Making unauthorised withdrawals from real estate trust funds is a serious offence, and sales representatives or agents who engage in such misconduct will be subject to legal consequences.”
BRB, just gonna add this to the list of ongoing renter concerns.
Lead image: LinkedIn
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