When letters from debt collection agencies began landing in Con Mancuso's letterbox, he assumed it was junk mail.

He had no idea that he'd already been declared bankrupt by a judge in the then-Federal Magistrates Court, with more than a million dollars of unpaid debts against his and his wife's name — debts that didn't exist.

He was also unaware liquidation proceedings were already underway against his company.

But when he noticed the stream of letters were addressed to him personally, Con called his lawyer.

Con's wife, Lani Hannah, jokingly asked him, "Are we going to have to move to Mexico?"

She stopped laughing when she discovered that they had in fact been declared bankrupt.

"When it dawned on [our solicitor] what was actually happening, Con started crying, he was so shocked," Lani said.

"The only thing I can equate it to is like termites, coming inside your world and attacking you and pulling it apart."

When they followed the legal trail back, they discovered it had all been started by a man they'd evicted from their factory in Melbourne's north a year earlier — Antonio Dattilo.

But they weren't his only victims.

Con and Lani received letters listing more than a million dollars of unpaid debts. ( ABC News: Margaret Burin )

By the time Dattilo and his wife Patricia were finally charged by police in 2014, they had buried 10 innocent people under false debts, bankruptcies and lawsuits, including members of their own family, who paid massive legal bills just to clear their names.

Among them was a sex worker Dattilo approached to seduce the husband of a woman he was obsessed with. When the woman refused to go through with the job, Dattilo had her declared bankrupt.

So how did he do it? And how did he get away with it for so long?

The factory owner

Con Mancuso was unknowingly declared bankrupt by Antonio Dattilo. ( ABC News: Michael Barnett )

When Con evicted Dattilo from his factory site for unpaid rent, he thought it was the last he'd hear of him.

Con and Lani Mancuso: Leased Datillo a factory for six months until he stopped paying rent

Leased Datillo a factory for six months until he stopped paying rent Learnt he had made them bankrupt through fliers in the mail

Learnt he had made them bankrupt through fliers in the mail Spent $120,000 having the court judgements overturned

And for a year, it was. What Con and Lani didn't know was that during that year, they were being sued by their former tenant in the Victorian County Court for more than $1.6 million.

Shockingly, Dattilo had already obtained default judgements against them.

It should have been impossible.

But the Dattilos had signed affidavits falsely claiming they'd served writs on Con and Lani.

So when the couple didn't turn up at court to defend themselves, the judge had no other option than to enter a judgement against them.

Lani said the only way to have the debt cleared was to take Dattilo to court and challenge his claims.

"Then begins the long, long journey of paying for solicitors, barristers to literally just clear your name," she said.

Lani Hannah's faith in the legal system has been destroyed. ( ABC News: Michael Barnett )

Dattilo also launched bankruptcy proceedings against them in the Federal Circuit Court, which was then the Federal Magistrates Court.

The couple estimate they spent $120,000 having the debt judgements overturned, caveats lifted from their properties and the bankruptcy proceedings thrown out.

"Someone you didn't know was out there attacking you and you couldn't believe it was happening," Con said.

"But then that's when we discovered there's a whole range of people that he's doing it to and we're not the only ones."

The sex worker hired to set a 'honey trap'

Anna* still finds it hard to rent a house after being wrongly declared bankrupt. ( ABC News: Michael Barnett )

In 2010 Dattilo approached then-sex worker Anna* asking her to monitor and eventually seduce a man he claimed was one of his employees, and who he suspected was beating his wife.

Former sex worker: Hired by Dattilo to act as a honey trap for a man whose wife he was obsessed with

Hired by Dattilo to act as a honey trap for a man whose wife he was obsessed with Reneged on the agreement and helped the man and his wife obtain an intervention order

Reneged on the agreement and helped the man and his wife obtain an intervention order Dattilo had her declared bankrupt and she's still unable to apply for credit

In fact, the man was a parent at his son's primary school and Dattilo was obsessed with his wife.

Anna didn't know that — or that the man had already told Dattilo to stop contacting his wife. As a victim of domestic violence herself, she agreed to take on the job.

But a fortnight later, Dattilo was becoming erratic. He sent Anna a text message indicating he was following her as she followed the target.

Anna contacted the man she had been paid to follow and told him she had been hired to act as a honey trap. She later helped him and his wife take out intervention orders against Dattilo.

At that point, Anna thought she would be able to get on with her life and distance herself from all of them.

But 18 months later she was horrified to learn she'd been declared bankrupt.

Anna said the Dattilos claimed to have hand-delivered the court documents to an address she no longer lived at.

"It was all perjury and lies and false bills," she said.

In a lie which helped bring them undone, Patricia Dattilo claimed she had gone to Anna's flat and spoken to her through the intercom.

But Anna no longer lived at the address and police discovered the intercom didn't work.

Anna ended up having the bankruptcy set aside, but it sent her broke in the process.

Seven years later some of the judgements are still linked to her name. She avoids applying for credit and finds it hard to rent a house.

"I'm still very reclusive and very uncertain, but I'm trying to take steps to change that and get ahead," she said.

"This could happen to anyone.

"How is it that … you can just make up [a debt], print it off on your home computer and then make someone bankrupt without them even knowing?"

Dattilo's sisters-in-law and the vegetable grower

Lina Fato works six days a week to pay off loans she needed to restore her financial status. ( ABC News: Michael Barnett )

Lina Fato expected she would be semi-retired by now.

Lina and Rosa Fato: Patricia Dattilo, nee Fato, had a falling out with her sisters over the sale of property

Patricia Dattilo, nee Fato, had a falling out with her sisters over the sale of property Lina Fato was taken to court without her knowledge over a fictional debt

Lina Fato was taken to court without her knowledge over a fictional debt Rosa Fato was declared bankrupt for a debt that didn't exist

Instead, she works three jobs to pay off the legal bills she racked up clearing her name after Dattilo, her brother-in-law, tried to have her declared bankrupt.

He claimed Lina owed him a debt of $35,000, and that he had served his sister-in-law a writ. Both claims were false.

When Lina finally found out, and went to court to challenge Dattilo's claim, he fabricated a document as evidence of the debt.

He produced a doctored fax in court, purportedly signed by Lina, stating that she had asked for a $35,000 loan and that the money had been transferred to her account.

Lina said it was extremely difficult to prove to the court that her brother-in-law had made it all up.

"He had plenty of fax machines and I never had a fax machine in my life," she said.

"To prove your innocence is just the pits."

Around the same time, Lina's sister Rosa found out she'd been declared bankrupt in the Federal Circuit Court in a case she knew nothing about.

The Dattilos had again signed affidavits falsely claiming they'd served her writs making her aware of the court proceedings.

When Rosa didn't appear at court, default judgements were entered against her.

Lina and Rosa Fato spent hundreds of thousands of dollars in the courts. ( ABC News: Michael Barnett )

Lina said she was devastated when she found out it had all been pushed through without her knowledge.

"Anybody could swear an affidavit, it doesn't have to be true," she said.

"It's done a lot of damage to a lot of people."

Her partner, Sam Cosentino, was also a target.

Dattilo tried to have his vegetable growing business wound up.

But in a stroke of luck, Sam's lawyer saw his client's name on the court list the day before the hearing.

Rosa said they were able to have the application dismissed.

"He is so lucky that the solicitor saw his name, otherwise the next day [he] would have lost everything," she said.

"It was all about money and greed.

"The court house was [Dattilo's] second home."

'It shouldn't be possible'

Earlier this year the Dattilos admitted in the Victorian County Court to signing affidavits containing false claims and having court judgements issued against their victims for debts that didn't exist.

Antonio Dattilo pleaded guilty to numerous counts of perverting the course of justice, attempting to pervert the course of justice and perjury, while his wife pleaded guilty to 13 charges of perjury.

Antonio and Patricia Dattilo outside the Victorian County Court. ( ABC News )

They're due to be sentenced on Wednesday.

Dattilo and his wife's many victims plan to attend court for the hearing, but most don't expect it will restore their faith in the legal system.

They all want the law changed to make it impossible for a person to be made bankrupt over fictitious debts.

Lani said the person who has issued a writ shouldn't be trusted with serving it.

"It shouldn't be possible to falsely declare that you've served a writ when you haven't," she said.

"The most obvious first step is to make it that the person who's suing, isn't the one who can serve the writ.

"That's where it all spirals out of control."

*Not her real name