Melissa Caddick’s Parents Ordered to Vacate Apartment to Receive Payout
The legal dispute over the Edgecliff property in Sydney’s eastern suburbs has finally been resolved. Melissa Caddick’s parents, Barbara and Ted Grimley, have been ordered to vacate the apartment they co-owned with their daughter in order to receive a payout of almost $1 million. The Grimleys claimed to have paid over $1 million towards the apartment, which they will now have to leave within six weeks.
Caddick disappeared in November 2020, shortly after the Australian Securities and Investment Commission (ASIC) raided her family home in Dover Heights. The corporate watchdog was investigating a multi-million-dollar Ponzi scheme, and authorities claimed that Caddick had stolen more than $23 million at the time. A coroner’s report last month found that she was officially dead, but could not conclude how or where she died.
In court documents, Caddick’s parents claimed to have paid more than $1 million towards the $2.25 million mortgage on the Edgecliff apartment. The legal case, initiated by ASIC, involved more than 50 investors attempting to recoup the stolen funds through the sale of Caddick’s assets. Last year, her collection of designer clothes, art, jewelry, and other luxury items were sold at auctions in Sydney.
In orders handed down on Monday, the investors will receive an “interim distribution” of $3 million and take ownership of the Edgecliff property once the Grimleys have moved out and prepared it for sale. Caddick’s decomposed foot washed up on a beach on the NSW South Coast three months later, hundreds of kilometers away from her Sydney home.
The resolution of this long-running legal dispute brings some closure to investors who lost money in Caddick’s Ponzi scheme. However, questions still remain about how Caddick managed to steal such a large amount of money and what happened to her after she disappeared. The case has highlighted the need for greater regulation and oversight of financial markets to prevent similar frauds from occurring in the future.