A Vietnamese scammer has been jailed for six years in Queensland for defrauding 30 victims out of $452,000 by posing as a builder.
Hong Thanh Dang Tran, 45, on Wednesday pleaded guilty to 30 charges in Brisbane District Court where Judge Tony Moynihan branded him a “con man”.
The court heard he operated a sophisticated scam between April 2022 and November 2023 by falsely presenting himself as a qualified tradesman offering building and renovation services via Facebook Marketplace.
Prosecutors said Dang Tran used false identities, disposable phone numbers, and business cards from legitimate builders as part of the scam, but after receiving payments from 30 people either did not begin the contracted work or did not complete it, Nine News reported.
In some cases the scammer introduced his victims to his family to build rapport, while in others he made vague threats when he was challenged and demanded even more money, the court heard.
Last year one of his victims, Sadqi Akbar, told 7 News he hired Dang Tran on Facebook to renovate his home in Kuraby, Brisbane, but the fake builder disappeared, leaving Mr Akbar’s bathroom unusable.
In 2021, the NSW government put out a statement about Dang Tran in relation to him and two companies associated with him related to “unlicensed work, taking excessive deposits from consumers, failing to provide insurance and failing to provide contracted services within a reasonable time”.
“In one case, a consumer paid Mr Tran $58,500 to renovate a kitchen, laundry and two bathrooms. However, after stripping the bathroom and kitchen, Mr Tran did not return to finish the job, leaving the consumer without access to the two rooms,” NSW Fair Trading said, adding that he had nine aliases.
Dang Tran’s counsel accepted that the nature of the offending was “calculated and egregious” and did not contest the prosecution’s request for six years’ imprisonment.
During sentencing, Judge Moynihan said told the Vietnam-born scammer: “You deployed tactics to encourage the complainants to trust you.”
“You are, at the end of the day, a con man.”
Dang Tran, who is now an Australian citizen, will be eligible for parole in November 2025 after having served only two years of the six year sentence as a result of time served since his November 2023 arrest.
Header image: Hong Thanh Dang Tran (7 News).
