Ferntree Gully Belgrave
Kennedy jailed for manslaughter of Chris Taylor
One last push for future of Lake Knox
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Tuesday, 25 July, 2023
Mail Cockatoo mum’s massive feat for babies
A new football tournament is born
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A Star News Group Publication
Phone: 5957 3700 Trades and Classifieds: 1300 666 808
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Getting to know Baba Desi .... For those brave enough to embrace the colourful clothes, and wizardlike appearance, Baba Desi can be the most interesting of sorts. The mysterious figure frequents local haunts around the Dandenong Ranges, causing curious passers-by to do a double take. One of those curious locals was long time Upwey resident Pauline Klemm, who was
intrigued by the man, wanting to know more about him and hear his stories. After meeting him just a few years ago, Ms Klemm now shares photos and stories on the Facebook page ’The Baba Desi story’, which has now amassed over 4000 followers. Read about her interaction with Baba Desi on page 11
Baba Desi and his friend Pauline Klemm. 346950
Scam stings club By Tyler Wright The Upwey-Tecoma Bowls Club has fallen victim to a vicious scam, costing them more than $100,000 in the process of rebuilding their facilities lost to damage during flooding in late 2022. A flash flooding event on Tuesday 25 October last year demolished the club’s front green and damaged around 40 per cent of its back lawn. Covered by insurance, the green was replaced in April 2023, with Berry Bowling Systems Pty Ltd contracted to complete the works. And while payments of $20,000 for the back
green and an additional deposit of $50,000 to repair the front green had been processed, 14 days after the final payment of $118,000, secretary Les Lane received a call from the contractors. “They contacted me and said ‘we haven’t been paid’ and I said ‘yes, you have. We paid you the day after you completed the work’. They said ‘we haven’t received the money,’” Mr Lane said. “We thought that these were the invoices from Berry’s and the treasurer duly organised payment.” Commissioning IT forensic specialists, it was discovered the club had been targeted by a business email compromise scam; where hackers had been tracking the club’s email history.
The original invoice was quickly deleted from the club’s inbox after it was sent and replaced with an identical copy, with the only difference in the doctored document being the BSB and account number. “The email arrived from Berry’s with the invoices on it and they deleted that email from my account. That was taken to Uganda, where they altered the bank details, the bank name and the BSB number and then resent the invoices,” Mr Lane said. “We recalled the money, and obviously within 14 days, the baddies had already taken the money away and we were $120,000 down the tube.” Continued page 3
Kay Kimmitt, Jeff Blastock, Les Lane, Jim Pearce, Jackie Bramwell and Mick Kimmitt from the Upwey-Tecoma Bowls Club. 348284 Picture: STEWART CHAMBERS
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