P O Box 95

BOX HILL VIC 3128

25 July 2015

Hon Robert Clark

24 Rutland Road

BOX HILL VIC 3128

Dear Sir

Mr TREVOR McTAGGART

I understand that you are no longer responsible the administration of the state’s legal profession but
regarded you highly for the work you in this area and would appreciate your assistance in a matter
concerning one TrevorMcTaggart who has a history of unqualified legal practice and what on the very best
face of it could be described as sharp practice. I cannot say that I am aware of all of his chequered history
but have become aware of the following:

1. In 1997 in reviewing the provisions of the Hearing Services Administration Bill 1997 Kelvin
Thompson detailed scams operated by companies called Ear Care and Better Care which had used
telemarketing to induce members of migrant communities to pay money to pursue compensation
claims that the companies were fully aware were unattainable by law. As part of their operations
they used the names and letterheads of two legal firms “Anthony Raso and Associates” and
“Vernon Barristers and Solicitors”. In his report to Parliament Kelvin Thompson spoke of his
dismay that the Law Institute declined to take any action against these legal firms and described
Trevor McTaggart as being one of the greatest conmen he had ever met. He went on to express his
distress as to how many people had been cold bloodedly ripped off by the “low lifes” who ran Eye
Care and his annoyance the Trevor McTaggart was still walking the streets.
2. In 2001 Trevor McTaggart was bankrupted by Morbanc Securities after breaching the terms of a
settlement he had entered into with them in 1997. He failed to have this overturned in a
subsequent hearing in which Federal Magistrate McInnes noted several omissions and
misstatements in in McTaggart’s Statement of affairs and evidence given to the court.
3. In 2002 MrMcTaggart’s wife went bankrupt and Trevor prepared her Statement of Affairs. In a
hearing to consider her discharge in 2005 it came to light that she had had taken out finance in her
maiden name to purchase a car for Trevor because of his poor credit history. The loan was
subsequently defaulted on and Mr B H Pascoe, Senior Member of the AAT noted the non-
disclosure of this transaction in documents prepared by Mr McTaggart and the apparent deception
involved in the use of Mrs McTaggart’s maiden name in the finance application.
4. In 2010 another entity operated by Trevor McTaggart,the Green Loans Assessors Co-operative was
named by Liberal Member for Bowman, Andrew Laming for not paying assessors for work that it
had collected money for from the government under the Green Loans Scheme. Christine Milne
claimed that she would refer the matter the Auditor General’s office and Minister Penny Wong
 said her Department was seeking legal advice on the matter but I am not aware as to whether
either of these actions achieved anything.
5. In 2011 McTaggart induced his business partners in Cool World Australia Pty Ltd to sign personal
guarantees on the basis that he was signing up to them as well. What he did not tell them was
that he was planning to petition for his own bankruptcy two days later and he continued the non-
disclosure of his bankruptcy to the creditor, Samil Power for some time after the event. Victorian
Supreme Court Judge J Judd noted in a judgement on a case arising from this “McTaggart did not
attempt to hide his contempt for ordinary concepts of honest business practice, or for Samil Power
and its representatives….While I regard the conduct of McTaggart towards Samil Power and others
(reflected in email conversations tendered to the court) as racist, dishonest, and wholly
inexcusable, he gave the impression in the witness box of a man who saw nothing wrong in what
he had done”.
6. In 2014 McTaggart took over the accounting work of Rodney Wallace and, together with a
disgraced former councillor from Gippsland, came up a legal strategy to launch two successive
legal actions in names of parties with no assets. Both actions included the same claims despite
most of them being proved to be unfounded in the first case and the victim of these actions was
left with no viable way of recovering on the costs orders. The Legal Services people were
undertaking an investigation of Mr McTaggart’s unqualified legal work and the involvement of
them and a Lakes Entrance solicitor in the production of lodgement of affidavits they knew to
contain significant falsehoods. As part of disproving the claims made in the affidavit they put
together for the first hearing a document on the letterhead of “Vernon Barristers and Solicitors”
(see paragraph 1) came to light and this seemed to cause great concern in the McTaggart camp.
They then seemed to issue a number of spurious claims of their own to the Legal Services Board in
order to find who had possession of documents produced under the name of Mr McTaggart’s old
co-conspirators. On or about this time a chap by the name of Howard Bowles appeared to
intervene to stop any further investigation of the matter. I am advised this included the
intimidating of staff trying to pursue the matter and similar treatment of witnesses that had
provided information that was inconvenient to him. I have also been advised that he has been
named in reports to the American SEC in relation to anti-racketeering matters they have been
investigating; certainly his conduct in this matter has been quite odd and rendered the operation
of his fiefdom quite dysfunctional. To add insult to injury I have been advised by the liquidator of
Mr Wallace’s company that they have asked ASIC to investigate transactions constructed by Mr
McTaggart to support an apparent “phoenixing” of the Wallace business into a new company,
Amrod Constructions Pty Ltd but they are unwilling to do anything either.

I understand that these matters may longer be part of your shadow ministerial jurisdiction, but as
someone who has always struck me as being across legal administration in this state I would appreciated
any enquiries you can make and advice you can give as to the outcome of these enquiries.

Yours faithfully

Simon Woodford