Stolen yacht did not exist!

by Kay Dibben, chief reporter Courier Mail on 8 Apr 2005 It sounded like a fantastic story - and it may be just that, albeit a different one - a $150,000 luxury yacht being delivered to a buyer in north Queensland had disappeared from Cairns without a trace.

A British yachtie who was hired to deliver the Aphrodite to Port Douglas had apparently sexually assaulted a female deckhand before sailing off with the boat.

Sunshine Coast pawnbroker Paul McLachlan, who had paid $22,500 for the 10m Beneteau Oceanis 311, sight unseen, had offered a $5000 reward for anyone who could find it.

Now police believe the ``stolen yacht' did not exist and Mr McLachlan has been conned.

On March 2, David Robin Douglas, 40, of Mooloolaba, who has changed his surname to Ocean, was charged with defrauding Mr McLachlan.

Sunshine Coast district water police extradited him from northern NSW, where he had been arrested, and he is now in custody awaiting a committal hearing.

Police will allege Douglas had shown Mr McLachlan a photo of a Beneteau yacht and told him he could buy it for a cheap price and sell it for much more. Douglas also allegedly provided a fake registration number for the yacht he said was called Aphrodite.

It will be alleged the Aphrodite did not exist, the registration number was of another boat and the photo came from a yacht manufacturer's website.

After Mr McLachlan paid $22,500 cash, Douglas allegedly told him he had arranged for someone in Port Douglas to buy it for about $150,000.

Mr McLachlan believed that a UK-based boatie had been hired by Douglas in October last year to deliver the yacht to Port Douglas within 15 days.

After he was told the yacht had disappeared from Cairns on November 4, Mr McLachlan reported it to Cairns water police as missing, believed stolen.

Mr McLachlan later told media the story he allegedly had been told by Douglas - that the female deckhand had fled from the boat, leaving her gear on board.

A woman claiming to be the deckhand later contacted police, but did not show up to make a statement. Investigations into the woman are continuing.

Mr McLachlan contacted coastguards and marinas around Australia after being told the yacht was missing and hired a debt collector to make inquiries in Cairns.

Cairns water police spent about two months investigating the report of the missing yacht and Australian Federal Police and Customs also were involved, before police began investigating the alleged fraud.