A man accused of scamming over half a million dollars through a Northern Beaches holiday rental service has pleaded not guilty in Manly Local Court today, 30 April 2025.
Aron Degotardi was arrested in March this year after police executed a search warrant on his Anna Bay home on Argyle Avenue. He was charged with 31 counts of ‘dishonestly obtain financial advantage by deception’.
The 51-year-old has since accumulated additional counts of the charge, upping the total to 42. He is accused of owing over $570,000 to landlords and short-term renters or would be-renters who used his rental service, Northern Beaches Holiday Rentals.
Alleged victims who used the site said they would pay a deposit on a rented property, only for it to be cancelled abruptly, while others reported turning up to the advertised properties to find they were occupied by residents with no knowledge of the rental agreements.
“They hadn’t refunded me. Nor the other 50% they had taken without my permission… The Airbnb host confirmed a booking had never been made for those dates & they hosted exclusively for that property so my booking had never been valid,” a disgruntled customer shared about the business on a product review site.
“They aren’t responding… if that doesn’t work I guess I’m off to small claims court for my $15k back!!” Another wrote after having their booking cancelled the night before.
Others claim to have engaged the business to rent their properties for holiday stays and didn’t receive the rental income.
Corina Ward and her sister Ursula Hopper attended Manly Court this morning to see Mr Degotardi’s case. The pair allege he never paid their owed rental income and he cut-off contact after leasing out their Fairlight properties through his business last Christmas holidays.
“Short term over Christmas, we went away on our annual holiday… came back, sent him various emails, several phone calls he answered, and he said to me that he would get the payment into my account on the Monday. That never happened. So I called him again. Called him again. There’s nothing,” Corina shared, who told police she is owed over $6000 in rental income.
Ursula claims to be even worse off, reporting a loss of over $29,000 from the alleged scam. The sisters said they had done business with Mr Degotardi before, but this was the first time they had never received payment.
Some claims from property owners who say they never received payment go as high as $46,000, while claims up to $20,000 from renters were reported to police.
Court was adjourned and Mr Degotardi was granted conditional bail and will appear in Manly Local Court next month, May 14 2025.
Anyone with information about this incident is urged to contact Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000.
