The only person to get his money back was Rodney Adler, who was himself later jailed for what was described as "appalling lack of commercial morality" in relation to Adler's directorship of HIH. Simons had taken their money falsely claiming he was investing in commercial property. In 2007 he was acquitted of defrauding Mr Cody of $668,000 but was subsequently jailed for defrauding Mr Miller. Matt Simons is paying $1800 a week for an upmarket residence overlooking Belongil Beach in Byron Bay. Credit:Danielle Smith Attempts by his latest victims to get their money back have been met with legal threats from Simons. Eddy Joseph, who is owed $150,000, received a "cease and desist" letter from Simons' Sydney lawyer, suggesting if he continued to badger Simons he would have him criminally charged with blackmail or using a "telecommunications network" to intimidate or harass Simons. Another victim was threatened with "demanding money with menaces," while a third was told recently: "Be advised that I shall not hesitate in commencing legal proceedings against you, should you cause my business or myself economic harm."

"I want him accountable," said one Gold Coast victim who didn't want to be named. In 2014, the man was in dire straits. His wife had a terminal illness and his business was floundering. He needed an injection of funds to keep the business afloat. Simons offered to get him a non-bank loan, charged him $15,000 in legal fees and due diligence, and produced nothing. "He knew all about my situation, he knew about my wife. He seemed quite sympathetic about it all. But really all he was interested in doing was taking money off me." The man's wife died, he lost the business and suffered a breakdown. Matt Simons was found guilty of obtaining money by deception in 2007. Credit:Louie Douvis "My husband has been battling cancer and we got ourselves heavily in debt and we were looking at finance that wasn't in banks," said Donna [not her real name] of her and her husband's encounter with Simons in January. He assured the Central Coast couple he had access to sources of funding in Hong Kong but they would need to pay $5000 for legal fees and $4,000 for due diligence. There were more requests for money and Donna and her husband borrowed $14,500 from friends. But the weeks passed and they received no documentation, just further requests for money. When Simons asked for $80,000 and then five days later $20,000, Donna was furious, pointing out that they had come to him because they had no money. "Yes," he said, "but it doesn't have to be from you, it can be from friends and family."

When Donna tried to get their money back she received an email from Simons suggesting he had "evidence of a possible serious misrepresentation" by Donna. She persisted and to date Simons has refunded $2000. In 2012 Westpac was threatening to put Mr Joseph's business into receivership and he turned to Simons for help. Simons claimed he had $600,000 in funding from a Chinese investor but needed an initial payment of $27,000 for consultancy and legal fees. He's a nasty piece of work. Everything that comes out of his mouth is a lie. Simons' former assistant Simons also returned to a trick that had worked a treat when he was defrauding fellow Kambala parents. There was a major commercial property deal in Port Macquarie and Mr Joseph would receive a handsome return for funding Simons who was just closing the deal. Even though an agreement was signed, no money was repaid. When he pestered Simons about his $150,000, the conman threatened to have Mr Joseph criminally charged for harassment and extortion. According to his LinkedIn profile, since 2015 Matt Simons has been the principal at Private Equity Business and he has an "excellent track record in Finance and Asset Management."

However, that company wasn't set up until 2017 and it was funded from $125,000 he took from his business partner's mother. Corporate records show that Brett Richardson was a director of PEB for only three days in October, 2017. Richardson believes that Simons needed someone with an AFS licence, which you must have in order to run a financial services business. He was horrified when he discovered his business partner could not get a licence because had been jailed for obtaining money by deception. His discovery was too late. Mr Richardson's mother had already loaned Simons $125,000 for a six month period. When he fell behind with the $700 monthly interest payments, Mrs Richardson wrote to Simons saying the money was from her retirement fund and she needed the payments to live on. Simons assured her that he'd make them and that the loan would be repaid in full in February 2018. The money wasn't repaid and when Mrs Richardson went to court, Simons engaged a topflight barrister to do battle with her suburban solicitor. Mrs Richardson lost and had to pay Simons' $3500 legal costs. "He's a nasty piece of work. Everything that comes out of his mouth is a lie," said Simons' assistant who worked for him for a few months at the end of 2017. She said she was run off her feet trying to deal with people chasing Simons for money. Unfortunately, the single mother of three also became a victim, pursuing Simons - unsuccessfully - for her wages of $10,000. Many victims reported being fobbed off by police who said it was a civil dispute. Most couldn't afford to spend more money chasing him through the courts. But one of his victims did get his money back.

Kel Attkins runs a waste water lining business on the Gold Coast. In 2015 he paid almost $6000 for a business plan and funding. After months, Simons' plan finally arrived. It was a generic business plan that had no relation to Mr Attkin's company. Mr Attkins wanted his money back but all he had was Simons' mobile phone number and post office box at Southport on the Gold Coast. He took to waiting for hours on end hoping Simons would collect the mail. Eventually he hired a wily debt collector, Judy Babington, who'd been in the business for 30 years. She got a judgment against the elusive Simons. The Queensland tribunal was scathing about Simons, noting that he claimed "he has undertaken an executive MBA at Bond University" but the work he provided did not demonstrate an appropriate level of care or skill. He was ordered to refund "the sum on $5678 forthwith." But he didn't. "He always said he had money in a trust or money was coming in. This went on for weeks," said Ms Babington who went back to court and obtained a garnishee order on his bank account.