Newcastle creditors of company linked to con man Lemuel Page forced to wait until September for outcome

Parkway One Pty Ltd creditors, who have been waiting for an outcome of the liquidation since 2019, will be forced to sit tight until the end of a Federal Court battle between Page's former wife Fiona Page and a company linked to Page's long-time friend Theo Baker, CL Assets Holdings.

According to the latest Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) report, filed by Parkway One liquidator Andrew Scott in December, there are 12 unsecured creditors owed more than $300,000.

Mr Scott said the creditors could not be paid until the matter between Fiona Page and CL Asset Holdings was finalised.

A week-long hearing has been listed in Sydney to settle the dispute starting on September 5.

The long-running saga began when Mr Baker, who was instrumental in helping Page avoid jail in 2018 on a fraud conviction, appointed receivers to three companies controlled by Fiona Page in an effort to recover millions allegedly loaned. Ms Page alleges that the loans have been repaid.

The companies, Shyzi Pty Ltd, Tallywalker Pty Ltd and Ohmut Pty Ltd, are controlled by Fiona Page, and hold multiple properties and assets estimated to be worth about $12 million, with numerous secured creditors.

They include a $6.5 million boarding house at Waratah and $1 million shed at Wickham.

Ms Page also listed among the assets a $3 million property on the water at Port Douglas, which her and Page renovated, two Sydney properties valued at $2 million and a Ferrari 458 Speciale V8.

The hearing will determine what happens to the assets of the companies that are being controlled by receivers KordaMentha.

If CL Asset Holdings wins and there is not enough to pay out what it alleges it is owed, the surplus from the liquidation of Parkway One Pty Ltd, which is being held by the NSW Supreme Court, could come into play.

The liquidator transferred $2.28 million to a Supreme Court trust account waiting on the outcome.

Parkway One, controlled again by Fiona Page, was placed in the hands of Mr Scott three years ago and three Newcastle properties, including a Newcastle beach apartment where Page used to live, were sold for about $6 million.

Page's lengthy career as one of Newcastle's most notorious scam merchants came to a very public end in July 2017 when he was convicted of fraud for selling a friend a fake diamond ring for $85,000.

Since the 1990s, working from Newcastle or Sydney, Page has promoted himself as a financial wheeler-dealer, but the Newcastle Herald revealed how dozens of Hunter people trusted him with their money and lost it in various scams.

His web of deceit, stretching back decades, involved failed investments that left him owing friends and former associates more than $17 million.

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