Former Launceston real estate agent Philip Claude Wickham has been ordered to stand trial in the Melbourne County Court in October on 81 charges involving $500,000.
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In a Melbourne Magistrates Court hearing, prosecutor Vanessa Ash alleged that Mr Wickham, 43, repeatedly bounced cheques and once claimed to be the chief executive of a company worth more than $450 million.
The 81 charges include 40 of obtaining financial advantage by deception, nine of theft and obtaining property by deception.
It was alleged that he stole $225,925 from two clients by claiming that he was head of the East West Group of companies.
It was alleged that an amount of $145,000 was a man's superannuation fund that was transferred into the company and used for operating expenses in 1995. It was also alleged that Mr Wickham owed money for services at an apartment in South Melbourne, architectural plans for a Toorak residential and commercial development and repairs to a BMW, as well as employee wages.
The court was told that he had claimed to be buying an island in Queensland and a West Australian cattle station.
Ms Ash said the allegations against Mr Wickham were "all about bouncing cheques and following the cheque trail". Mr Wickham, of Old Mornington Rd, Mt Eliza, has reserved his plea.
He was released on bail with a surety of $30,000.
Mr Wickham's counsel sought an adjournment so that legal funding could be arranged for a committal hearing. This was refused.
Deputy chief magistrate Dan Muling then ordered that the case go straight to the County Court.
Mr Wickham was a partner in Launceston real estate firm Gatenby, Reed and Wickham until the Auctioneers and Real Estate Agents Council charged him with not being a fit and proper person to hold a real estate agent's licence.
He was also a footballer with City- South in the 1970s.