THE LAW USED TO DEPRIVE US OF OUR HOME AND VALUABLES

It wasn't much but this was our home before it was taken from us

LATEST DETAILS

29 July 2010

We got no reply to the last letter to the Police Minister so we lodged a complaint with the Police Complaints Department. They have now looked into the matter and surprise, surprise, they tell us the same old story. No 'there was no criminal act', yet no-one has ever given us any documentation to say that the Hempsells had any right to dispose of our property. There has to be a court order issued for this to happen WHERE IS THAT COURT ORDER and why have we never been given a copy of it? Why have our personal possessions been disposed of when this is expressly forbidden? The whole thing is a sick joke.

Apparently it is quite alright for Sgt. Voyez to investigate his own actions as bailiff, including his determination that our property did not amount to the so called debt.

Even if there is a property disposal court order, show me the fairness in the disposal of property that cost us $65,000 for a manufactured debt of just $770!

We were told that we are being 'vexatious' well well, I wonder how anyone would feel when their home and personal goods have been taken  like this? Pardon me if I am being 'vexatious' it's just that I don't like being deprived of my own home and possessions.

I still can't understand why nobody gets it!

27 May 2010 - Today I spoke to a member of the police force from Carnarvon who passed on the message to me that as far as Narrogin Police are concerned, 'no criminal act has taken place'. The member of the WA police who investigated this I was told is a Sgt. Martin Voyez. Is this the same Martin Voyez who was acting as bailiff in this matter and who refused to do anything to bring the matter to a reasonable resolution.

If Sgt. Voyez was the former Great Southern bailiff he has a clear conflict of interest in investigating the matter now as a police officer and he should have appointed someone completely impartial to look into it, in fact someone who is not from the police station that he has influence over. This appears to be misconduct.

There is no explanation about what has happened or any official documentation indicating that the Hempsells have any right to touch our possessions.

We still do not know what has happened to all our goods and possessions at Lazeaway Caravan Park and there is no explanation from anyone about what has happened. Meanwhile we continue to pay insurance for the bus and license fees for our trailer. Where do we go from here? We have no choice, now we have to take this matter to the media and into the internet. This is gross injustice. The Hempsells are apparently above the law and to us it looks very much like they are being protected.

I wish someone could explain to me how something like this can be allowed to happen. Is it official indifference or is it corruption? The Hempsells have taken property that by law even a bailiff is not allowed to touch!

We have written to the Police Minister again but hopes of ever getting this resolved are rapidly fading. All I can say right now is that the justice system and various government departments in W.A. have failed us badly.

People who come to live here from overseas have to sign an Australian Values Statement. Perhaps the Government departments who have presided over this mess should also be required to read and sign such a statement that includes the following:

Australian Shared Values:

• respect for the freedom and dignity of the individual

• freedom of religion

• commitment to the rule of law

• parliamentary democracy

• equality of men and women

• a spirit of egalitarianism that embraces mutual respect, tolerance, fair play and compassion for those in need and pursuit of the public good

• equality of opportunity for individuals, regardless of their race, religion or ethnic background.

No such values have been exhibited in this case.

WHAT HAVE WE LEARNED?

1. Trust no-one - even Government agencies set up to protect people like us failed to do anything to help.

2. There is no justice unless you have the money to pay for it. If you have no money YOU'RE SCREWED!

3. The more you complain, the more it is your fault.

4. No-one cares because it isn't happening to them.

5. Those with the money and resources can do anything they like regardless of how immoral it is.

Obviously we have reached the end of this particular road. We have lost everything and have to start all over again. All we can do now is warn others what can happen if you are too trusting and let as many people as possible know what happened to us.

SUMMARY

Following is a brief summary of this issue. Following the summary are the complete details of the matter along with supporting documentation.

The civil matter

1. In 2005 we moved to Lazeaway Caravan Park, Popanyinning. W.A. and had a verbal agreement with the owners (Greg & Judy Hempsell) to keep our home (a converted Bedford bus) on their property. The agreement was that we would pay normal fees while we were there and pay nothing while we were away. This was the same agreement extended to other people using the caravan park.
2. This agreement remained in place until 2007 when due to other people moving into the park there was a problem with shared power. We were told that power to our bus was temporarily unavailable and as we also had a caravan we went away for a while until the power problems had been rectified.
3. 13 months passed and despite contacting Lazeaway from time to time to ask about the power situation nothing was done. As we were getting fed up with being away from our home (the bus) we put our concerns in writing to Greg Hempsell. The response we got was very hostile with Judy Hempsell saying that it was too expensive to put in another power point and if we didn't like it we could leave.
4. Without the power to do anything about it we left Lazeaway in March 2008 to go on our annual trip north hoping that things would settle down and could be rectified by the time we returned.
5. In May 2008 we received a registered letter stating that we had abandoned our bus and that it was to be removed from Lazeaway. This claim was a lie and was made despite the fact that in our previous letter to Greg Hempsell we had outlined our plans for the years and he was fully aware that we had NOT abandoned the bus.
6. The matter was taken up through what we regarded as the correct channels as we sought assistance from the Tenant's Advice Service, D.O.C.E.P. and finally the State Administrative Tribunal.
7. Things became complicated when after 20 years of searching we finally located my wife's identical twin sister and the ABC offered to do a story on the reunion and pay to reunite the girls. This was perhaps one of the most important events in our lives and we could not attend to the bus matter until the reunion had been completed and we had spent some time in Malaysia with my wife's twin.
8. We returned to Australia in December 2008 and tried to have the S.A.T. make a ruling on our rights in the caravan park. We were shocked when, flying in the face of three separate legal opinions (one even from the S.A.T. duty solicitor) we were told that we were not covered under the tenancy legislation and the S.A.T. had no jurisdiction. We still believe this ruling was in error.
9. We immediately went south and stopped at a caravan park in Wandering prior to trying to resolve the bus issue. While we were there we received a threatening SMS message from Lazeaway and the following morning our car caught fire in suspicious circumstances. This was reported to the Police but nothing ever came of it. We were also threatened by one of the Hempsell's friends (Ray Gibbs) who abused my wife while we were stranded in Wandering with no car.
10. In December 2008 the Hempsells denied us access to our bus and other property and we have seen none of our possessions since March 2008.
11. The matter went to court but by this time we were too afraid to remain in the area and fled to the south west. We attempted to have the hearing moved to another court but our request was refused. At that point we simply gave up any hope of having a fair hearing. We were traumatised and our health was suffering badly. The attempts made by the Hempsells and their friends to terrorize us had been very successful.
12. Other issues with regard to my wife's twin had become paramount and in April 2009 we had to fly back to Malaysia returning to W.A. six weeks later.
13. As we had not been able to attend the court the judgment was made against us for a sum of just over $1000. As we believe this debt is simple extortion and has been incurred under extreme duress we refused and still refuse to pay it.
14. We have been trying all the time to get someone to listen to us and help us with this matter. This has included Legal Aid, Community Legal Centres, The State Ombudsman, The State Attorney General and many others. To date we have received no help despite the fact that we are now homeless and I am on an invalid pension.

The criminal matter ?

In March 2010 I received an email indicating that some of our personal papers and a few photograph albums had turned up in Albany with a third party.

This is a clear indication that our bus and locked shed have been broken in to and our possessions are being removed.

We checked with the Narrogin Court and were told that no order has been granted allowing the Hempsells to access our property.

Breaking and entering and theft are criminal offences so we reported this to Sgt. Smith at Carnarvon Police station. Sgt. Smith refused to take any action as the matter is long standing (something completely beyond our control) and that it is too complicated. We do not believe that a Police Sgt. should be acting as Judge and Jury in a matter like this.

The 'system' has failed us at every turn and now we have been stripped of our home and most of our possessions. The property that Lazeaway has seized cost us about $65,000.00 and they have taken this for a supposed debt of $770. Where is the justice in that?

DETAILS OF THE MATTER

All supporting documents are referenced by numbers (i.e. [1])

Written by R. Glasby.

Explanation of the issues to date:

My husband is an invalid pensioner with severe back problems and deteriorating eyesight. I am his Carer. We are the victims of one of the most callous and heartless rip-offs that has ever been conducted by a caravan park in Western Australia. Following are the facts detailing what has taken place so far.

In 2003 due to a number of health problems my husband had to go on to disability support and as a result could no longer afford to keep up payments on our home. The house had to be sold and because the market was still very low at the time we got very little out of the sale.

My husband and I had an old 1962 Bedford unregistered bus that had been converted into a motorhome and we started looking for somewhere to put the bus on a permanent basis. We wanted to use it as our 'home base' while we travelled as much as we could in a small caravan.

In September 2005 we spoke with Greg and Judy Hempsell (the managers and owners) of Lazeaway Holiday Farm/Caravan Park with regards to living there as tenants. We explained our intentions (to be at the park for about 6 months of each year) and financial circumstances to them and after some consideration they consented to us living on their park. After mutual verbal agreement to the terms of paying rent on a weekly basis but no storage fees whilst we were away from their caravan park, i.e. an agreement which they held with the other semi-permanent tenants there, they picked out a site within the 'tourist' area of their caravan park in which to locate the bus on our arrival. They told us that we could leave our caravan on Lazeaway while we made the arrangements for the move.

On the 10^th October 2005, we made our move by hiring Hampton Transport to tow our bus from Bonney's Water Ski Park (Baldivis) to Lazeaway Caravan Park in Popanyinning and followed behind in our 4WD car towing our box trailer containing the last of our possessions. By then Greg Hempsell had decided on allocating us a site within the “residential” area of their caravan park where water and power facilities [P1] had to be accessed from Linda Allott’s (mother of Judy Hempsell) site, more than 20 metres away.

Although the original plan was for us to use the caravan park ablution block, the Hempsells let us use Linda Allott's small shed containing a shower and toilet (annexed next to her caravan) for our private use, as long as she was away. The condition was that we kept it clean and stoked the wood chip heater ourselves whenever we needed hot water for showers. We noticed a four pack of toilet rolls already in the shed so we asked the Hempsells what we should do when it ran out because we did not know whether the cost was included in the rent we paid them. Judy Hempsell told us that I only had to go to the ablution block laundry, where there was a cupboard containing the toilet paper and get some more.

The Hempsells told us that Linda Allot and her husband were in Queensland and that they did not expect them to return in the near future.

Once settled onto our site, Judy Hempsell showed us around the rest of Lazeaway. During the tour, she happened to mention a couple, whom they previously had there as tenants, who caused them 'trouble'. She stated that the husband had been behaving suspiciously and that the wife had begun making demands on them. Judy Hempsell convinced us that this particular couple was a pair that no caravan park would want as tenants. My husband and I felt safe in the knowledge that such an occurance would not happen to us as we are careful to obey caravan park rules and not 'rock the boat' considering that the balance of power lies in favour of the caravan park owners/managers.

The outcome of the above dispute with this nameless couple was that the Hempsells demanded that they leave Lazeaway; and in doing so gained a large permanent overhead caravan shelter (for Judy's mother's caravan) in the process. According to Judy, “... under no circumstances, did the husband want to sell the caravan shelter to us. So in order to get it, we got a friend of ours, who owned a farm, to pretend that he was buying it for himself, then later reimbursed him. The shelter cost $600 but we got it for $300”.

We were not very impressed when Judy Hempsell related the latter of the above story to us because it was the first indication that we might be dealing with a deceitful couple but what choice did we have; having already committed ourselves by moving to Lazeaway.

All the time when we were present on Lazeaway, we paid the rent weekly and in advance. During the first year at Lazeaway, we travelled for part of the year (including a trip up North) and returned to the park for the rest of the year. We were so happy that Lazeaway was our chosen domicile and habitual residence. Being good tenants (ie. we paid our rent on time, kept our site neat and tidy, did not cause a disturbance and basically kept to ourselves), we thought that we would be allowed to live here for the rest of our lives in peace. We were even given permission to cultivate a vegetable garden [P2], erect a shed [P4] next to our bus and to plant some citrus trees  [P3].

We also maintained the upkeep of Linda Allott's site (next door to our site) by clearing the fallen leaves and branches as well as watering (hand watering and manual reticulation) the plants. My husband even offered (which was accepted by Judy Hempsell) to redo her mother's garden reticulation system to make it easier to water the garden, as long as Judy bought the materials to do it.

In December 2005, my husband and I were contacted by a lady (Milly) whom we had housesat for in the past. She was considering having us housesit for her again. We informed Greg and Judy of this possibility and asked Greg how much he wanted for power whilst we were away. When he asked us how long we would be away, we told him “two weeks” to which his answer was “Don't worry about it”. We did not end up house sitting because Milly informed us that her plans had changed and we did not forget Greg's comment.

On the 20^th August 2006, we gave the Hempsells 7kg (half of our catch) of frozen fish fillets (including some crab), neatly packaged and labelled by species that we had caught up North on our trip to Karratha, in appreciation for them letting us live at Lazeaway as tenants.

On the 24^th August 2006, I had my first confrontation with Judy Hempsell after I had gone to the laundry for some toilet rolls and found the supply cupboard padlocked. (I naturally assumed that it was padlocked because the caravan park might have had in, dishonest tourists that were stealing the supplies). When I informed Vicki (Judy's younger daughter) that I needed some toilet rolls and that the cupboard was locked, she told me that her mother wanted to speak to me.

On seeing Judy, she told me that she had wondered where the toilet rolls had gone as she had to replenish them more frequently than normal. When I admitted to taking them, she became highly annoyed and began telling me that the other tenants supply their own toilet paper. When I then reminded her that she was the one who told me to take the toilet rolls, she stated “I don't remember telling you that”.

When she told me that the other tenants (who own their own toilet/shower sheds) supply their own rolls, I agreed to supply our own (whilst using mother's 'toilet shed') from now on. I could not help feeling hurt at the insinuation that I was a thief when all I did was to follow her previous instructions. We had specifically broached the subject, the day we arrived at Lazeaway, so that we would never be accused of doing 'the wrong thing'.

The way Judy Hempsell handled this particular matter made us very upset. It seemed to us rather petty considering that we had just given them fish fillets worth more than $140 (market price) compared to a 4 pack of toilet rolls costing $2, being used every one and a half to two weeks! The lack of diplomacy in which Judy Hempsell approached me was of concern as we never had an issue about supplying our own toilet rolls and this “misunderstanding” could have been prevented from the outset.

On the 16^th October 2006, there was another confrontation, this time with Greg Hempsell when I was paying him the rent. We had just arrived back from exactly a week's stay in Perth in order to get some modifications done on a larger caravan that we had purchased. I had told Greg that we were going to Perth for 'a few days' and why, before we left.

When I paid Greg the rent, he began to berate me for not getting in touch with them after 3 days away. He said that they (the Hempsells) were concerned for us and that they were “responsible” for us. He then insisted that I told him that we would be away for three days instead of “a few days”. He continued to have a debate with me with regards to the definition of “a few days”. The reason we had been away for a week was because we had problems with our car and had to get that sorted out before driving back to Popanyinning.

Greg then said that because we were only paying him $80 per week as opposed to the other semi-permanent tenants who paid him $12 a day, we “cannot come and go as you please”. I did not know what he meant by this as I thought that our lives were our own. Greg and Judy Hempsell never question the other semi-permanent tenants as to when they are coming or going from Lazeaway.

Greg Hempsell was also annoyed that we left our bus connected to power the week we were away and that we did not pay him any money for it. I explained to him that we did not ask him because of what he said to us back in December 2005, when we thought we would be house sitting Milly's home for two weeks. Greg Hempsell's reply was “ I don't remember telling you that”.

On the 23^rd October 2006, my husband and I decided to let Greg Hempsell know that we would, like the other semi-permanent tenants, pay him $12 per night for rent ie. $84 per week ( $4 more than what we were already paying him in rent). I told Greg that we wanted to be on the “same standing” as the other semi-permanent tenants at Lazeaway.

Even though Greg Hempsell said that we did not have to pay him the $4 extra per week, I insisted. In doing so, we felt that the Hempsells would have no more reason to treat us differently from the other semi-permanent tenants on Lazeaway.

It was also at this stage that we asked Greg Hempsell to give us a written tenancy agreement. We were tired of the arguments that had occurred due to Greg and Judy Hempsell's lapses of memory. At least once written in “black and white” there would be no question as to what terms or conditions were stated. I specifically told Greg that we wanted a written agreement because we also wanted “to know what our responsibilities are”. We did not want them to come up with any excuse that we had not fulfilled our obligations or met their expectations. Greg Hempsell's reply to my request for a written tenancy agreement was that it was now all “cut and dry”, so there was no need for one. (Strange thing for someone with such a POOR MEMORY to say!)

We have since found out that under the tenancy legislation, caravan parks are required to supply such an agreement after three months. When the owners/managers of caravan parks simply refuse to supply one it appears that the SAT and DOCEP do nothing but sit on their hands and ignore the situation.

On the 5th February 2007, Greg Hempsell informed us that since Judy Hempsell's mother (Linda Allott) had returned to live in her caravan on the park, the power point that we were using for the bus would no longer be available as it tends to overload when three couples access the power. He told us not to live in our bus but to move our caravan to a tourist site and live in that instead. Greg Hempsell also told us that he “needed to erect a power pole” next to our bus on our own site.

That very evening, Linda Allot also approached us and berated us for tripping the power in her caravan even though it was an accident. She did not know that Greg Hempsell had earlier that day given us permission to use the lights in our bus for removing items from it to the caravan. (We had been away on a camping trip and the caravan had virtually nothing in it that would allow us to use it to live in, so many items needed moving from the bus and this had to be done the day we returned.)

Linda Allot assumed that we were deliberately disobeying Greg's instructions and launched into a tirade without bothering to find out the facts first. Her comment to us was “Greg told you specifically, that you were not to use your bus !!!”. She was extremely rude and the confrontation so unpleasant that Greg Hempsell was eager to have us start on our trip down south.

One of the semi-permanent tenants (Cliff) informed us later that Linda Allott, on her arrival and seeing our bus next to her site, had taken an instant dislike to us and had objected to our presence there. Judy Hempsell also confirmed (to me) that her mother did not like us being parked so close to her, despite us being located outside her mother's fenceline.

We felt that it was in everyone’s interest that we leave Lazeaway in our caravan as soon as possible. At the time even Greg and Judy Hempsell were upset about the way Linda Allott had treated me.We decided that it would be best for us to go away in the caravan for a while and let things cool down and also allow time for the Hempsells to get the new power point for our bus sorted out.

Four days later, prior to leaving Lazeaway, we asked the Hempsells to phone us (I had personally given Judy Hempsell our mobile number on a piece of paper at an earlier time) and let us know when we could come back to Lazeaway (i.e. when Linda Allott and her husband were away) and that we would also ring them from time to time to enquire about the power situation.

As we could no longer return to the park and live in our bus we stayed away waiting for some news that the power facility next to our bus had been completed. We rang a number of times and on a couple of occasions we were told that Judy's mother was away. During these times we returned to the park to stay in our bus but each time it was only for a couple of weeks.

The other times when we rang the Hempsells, Judy Hempsell told us that the power situation was still being organised. Judy Hempsell told me that they were trying to see whether Cliff's son ,who was an electrician, could help them with the power arrangements to Lazeaway.

At no time did the Hempsells ring us. After 13 months had gone by with no news that anything was being done to improve the power situation, we became frustrated with continually having to stay away from Lazeaway and our bus; which was our home after all.

On the 10^th March 2008, we happened to meet Greg Hempsell at the Wagin Caravan Park where we were staying for one week. He had booked into the caravan park for a few days as he was servicing the farms in and around the Wagin area with regards to his Hannaford's Seed Treatment Business.

Greg told me that he thought we were using him by staying away from Lazeaway and keeping the bus there. He said that even when we were at Lazeaway, we did not stay in our bus (having forgotten that he himself had instructed us not to use our bus and why). He also spoke about charging us storage fees for the bus whilst we were away but when I asked him if he could let us know what storage fees he was charging the other semi-permanent tenants on Lazeaway, his reply to me was “ Oh no, they are different from you” and then left.

I told my husband about the above conversation, which was when he decided to put the following letter in writing [1] to Greg Hempsell in the hope that he could sort things out. We even asked about moving our bus, shed etc. to another site but this was ignored.

On the 17^th March 2008, we arrived at Lazeaway as Greg had also informed me (at Wagin) that his parents-in-law were once again away and not expected back for one month.

On our arrival we noticed that nothing had been done to rectify the power situation on our site as everything was still the same. When I asked Judy Hempsell if she had read the letter [1] that we had given Greg in Wagin, she became aggressive in her dealings with me. She took offence at the letter and the mention of her mother. She accused us of making demands in the letter. Amongst other things she stated that if we did not like it, “There’s the front gate!”. She also stated that if we did not like the site that we were on, then “you can move to another site!”. However, when I asked her to point out the site to which they wanted us to move and that we would ready and willingly do it, Judy Hempsell’s reply continued to be, “Not my problem!”.

I was extremely upset at this turn of events as my husband and I did not expect such an adverse reaction to the letter [1] that we had written to the Hempsells. It took a fair amount of effort to placate Judy Hempsell and calm her down. When I did enquire about the power situation once again, Judy’s reply was that it would cost too much to erect a power pole on our site. She stated that “it would cost thousands”. (We had been were told by two other semi-permanent tenants (Jim and Joy) that the Hempsells had been talking about fixing the power in the park for years but had never done anything about it) The last words I said to Judy Hempsell before we parted were “Please can you let us know when both Greg and you are available so that all of us can sit around your dining table and discuss some issues in a civil manner” to which Judy Hempsell agreed.

From that day and the three weeks we were at Lazeaway (March-April 2008) neither Greg nor Judy brought the subject of paying storage fees or any other matter up with us again, so we considered it closed. Each time I paid my rent to Greg Hempsell, he was cordial and relatively friendly. In no way did the Hempsells indicate that they had a problem with us and I did not force the subject of “getting together” as we had already asked them twice ( ie. written and verbally ) and felt they would do it in their own time.

(During the above three weeks at Lazeaway, I also chatted with a couple of tourists who were staying at the caravan park for a few days. They said that they lived in a park home at the Aqua Caravan Park (Mandurah) and were “trying out” their recently bought caravan. They had heard that Lazeaway was a nice caravan park to come to for a holiday.

Out of curiosity, I naturally asked the couple from the “Aqua” caravan park what it was like living there with regards to rent and storage fees for the various types of clientele. Bearing in mind that the “Aqua” is a large metropolitan caravan park as opposed to remote “Lazeaway” with only four couples as “tenants” and a handful of tourists, the fees would differ remarkably. When it came to storage fees, the couple said that we were very “fortunate” as the Hempsells had told them, just the day before when they enquired, that none of the Lazeaway Residents paid storage fees.)

On the 7th April 2008, we went North (as we had done each year) to get away from the cold of winter. Greg Hempsell saw us driving out of the gate and I thought I saw a look of surprise on his face; but as we had informed him of our plans in the letter [1], I did not give it much thought.

On the 9th May 2008, we were extremely upset when we were unexpectedly sent ( registered post # RD 28986526) an unsigned letter [2] from Lazeaway stating that we had “abandoned” our bus and that we were to remove it. The owners already had in their possession the letter we had written on March 11^th [1] and so they knew that any assertion that we had “abandoned” the bus was a complete lie. They also chose to write and send the “Eviction Notice” [2] exactly two weeks after us leaving their caravan park. If they had wanted us to leave the park they had ample opportunity to ask us to do so while we were staying there for three weeks. The Hempsells knew we went to Karratha, specifically staying at Cleaverville Beach, as we had done so for the past two years. They seem to have deliberately waited until we reached Karratha before making this demand so as to cause us the maximum inconvenience.

We contacted the Tenants Advice Service (File Ref: 8948413) and explained the situation to them. Their response was to tell us that we were classified as ‘Variable Periodic Long-Stay’ tenants and that the letter we had received was not enforceable as it was not signed. They suggested that we write to Lazeaway and not only make the position clear but to also mention the power situation on the caravan park as it was an environmental health and safety hazard. We sent a registered letter [3] (RD 29224220) to Greg Hempsell on 16^th May which he received on the 22^nd May 2008.

After no response to our letter [3] from Greg Hempsell, on the 8^th July 2008, my husband sent a letter to the Cuballing Shire Council [4] and a letter of complaint to DOCEP [5].

The T.A.S. advised us to check with the State Administrative Tribunal (SAT) to see if any orders had been lodged against us. This we did and found there had been nothing lodged.

We sought opinions with the duty solicitors at both DOCEP and the SAT about our tenancy status and both agreed that the definition given to us by the TAS was correct and that we were covered by the legislation. We now had three separate legal opinions stating that we were in fact covered by the State's tenancy legislation.

Next, we received yet another unsigned letter [6] from Lazeaway, this time imposing storage fees. The storage fees demanded were $15 a day which was nothing short of extortion. The weekly storage fees of $105 was exactly the same as the rent we paid at Lazeaway for a powered site. The storage fee demand clearly stated that the fee was for an 'unpowered site' so they were trying to charge us more for storage than they had previously done for a powered site.

(At the previous caravan park where we were residents (i.e. Bonney's Water Ski Park), the manager (Colin) made enquiries before charging us a storage rate of $10 per week which he claimed was the normal going rate.)

Bearing in mind that we had no choice but to stay away from the park and that no other residents were being charged for storing items there, I can only assume that this was just blatant discrimination (aside from the fact that Greg Hempsell had already told us that we were 'different' to all the other tenants and that rules for them did not apply to us).

As for the later claim to DOCEP that we were asked to discuss storage fees with them and that we refused to relocate to another site; that is another complete and utter lie.

In June/July 2008, good friends of ours (Lesley and Kevin, whom we had lost contact with) called into Lazeaway and enquired about us. From their description, they spoke with Greg Hempsell at the front desk. Greg Hempsell told them that he did not know of our whereabouts (a lie). When Lesley gave him an outdated mobile phone number of ours, he went away telling her that he would check to see if it was the same as the one they (the Hempsells) had. On his return, he confirmed that it was the same but also warned them not to go mentioning our name “around town” as we were “not popular” there. It was in January/February 2009 that we finally caught up with Lesley and Kevin who told us this. With regards to our mobile phone number that we had given the Hempsells; it is the same one that we are currently using and Telstra has told me (on 9^th February 2010) that we have had it since 2003.

In August we wrote to both the SAT and DOCEP informing them about the storage fee issue.

On the 18th August 2008, Gary Boyd from DOCEP rang to tell us that their Duty Lawyer said that we were covered under the Residential Tenancy Act (which I noted in my diary) and that he also contacted the Cuballing Shire who was sending out a Health Inspector to Lazeaway to assess the power situation. (To date we do not know the outcome of the Health Inspector’s assessment even though Warren Adams stated in the letter to us “I anticipate that the Shire of Cuballing will be writing to you regarding this issue”).

While all this was going on we had a very important family matter developing. I was adopted at birth and my identical twin sister was also adopted but into another family. The families did not keep in touch and we were separated for almost 50 years. On August 1st 2008, we finally located my sister and ABC Television got involved and was going to reunite us and film a story for the 'Can We Help' program. This was one of the most important events in our entire lives.

In August 2008, we moved south from Karratha to Carnarvon in order to be able to contact the ABC more easily.

My husband lodged an application with the SAT to have the storage fees reviewed as we believed them to be completely unreasonable. The Hearing was scheduled for the 4^th September 2008. (We had no problems paying a fee we could afford but what was being demanded was clearly unreasonable.)

At some stage the Hempsells must have rung the caravan parks in Carnarvon in order to locate us as Edie at the Norwesta Caravan Park (in which we were staying) Office said, “A lady claiming to be from Popanyinning has been ringing; asking about you”.

On the 1st of September 2008 we received a phone call from Gary Boyd (DOCEP) to say that Greg Hempsell had agreed to waive any claim for storage fees as long as our property was removed from Lazeaway. No time limit was given by Gary Boyd at this stage and we found this arrangement amicable as it would allow us to attend to the matter after our involvement with the ABC story. This included filming with the crew in Perth and taking footage for the ABC whilst we were in Malaysia so that they could do a sequel to our Twin Reunion Story if they so desired. Gary Boyd also advised us to send a letter ([9] by registered post #RD 28097073) to Greg Hempsell explaining our involvement with the ABC. (This letter was accidentally dated August instead of September)

As the issue of storage fees now seemed to have been settled, we wrote to the SAT [10] and withdrew the application to have the matter adjudicated. (“August” mistakenly typed; should have been “September”)

On the 5th of September 2008, Greg Hempsell harassed us by ringing our mobile three times in a short space of time. He reneged on the agreement as related to us by Gary Boyd just 4 days earlier and began telling us that we “had one week to remove the bus.” Even if we had not already been involved with the ABC, it would been impossible to remove the bus in that time frame. The demand was completely unreasonable considering the circumstances.

We rang Gary Boyd (at DOCEP) to inform him of Greg Hempsell's harassment and unreasonable demand but by this time Gary Boyd had clearly sided with Lazeaway and even went so far as to make a smarmy comment about our supposedly “wonderful lifestyle”. My husband immediately lodged a complaint about his behaviour with his supervisor [11].

We wrote once again to the SAT [13] to inform them of what had happened.

On 8^th September 2008 Greg Hempsell reiterated this demand by SMS.

On the 9^th September 2008, I had an appointment with Dr. Austin (Carnarvon Medical Centre). The dispute with the Hempsells was affecting me so badly that I could not sleep because my mind was in constant turmoil. I felt helpless as there was nothing that we could do despite the constant pressure of the Hempsells to remove our property from Lazeaway with the added element of the extortionate storage fees that increased weekly. I began to experience difficulty in my breathing and would miss seeing things that were obviously present; one instant could have resulted in a car accident. Dr. Austin also found that my blood pressure was unusually high for a person with no history of high blood pressure in the past. He therefore prescribed Diazepam, which he said would help with sleep and calm the nerves.

On 10^th September 2008, we had an appointment at 9.30am with Jan Biggar (Paralegal, Gascoyne Community Legal Centre). We gave her a history of what had occurred between the Hempsells and us regarding tenancy issues. She supplied me with the DOCEP booklet “Information booklet Park Living” and other relevant documentation pertaining to tenancy issues. Noticing my husband's behaviour, she then referred us to Chris Armstrong (Community Counsellor, Carnarvon Family Support Service) for counselling who could accommodate us immediately.

Chris Armstrong took my husband through the various “stress relieving” techniques but it did not help much. When we told her that our stress was caused by our predicament with the Hempsells in relation to our property there, she said that she would ring some contacts in Narrogin and see if she could find someone who could remove our bus and other property from Lazeaway, and was willing to store it for us until we got back from Malaysia.

Knowing that nobody would do this for free, we told Chris that we could afford to pay them $200 and also give them our shed (plus shelving) worth $810 in gratitude. If our citrus trees were still alive, they could have those too plus all the garden chemicals/fertilizers we had purchased to upkeep them and my vegetable garden.

Our session with Chris Armstrong ended at 12.30pm and after ringing a few places in Narrogin, she came up with the name, Wayne Bird, who owned Bird Silos in Popanyinning. She told us to leave the arrangements to her and we went home to compile a list of our property at Lazeaway, including some instructions, to pass on to whoever was going to undergo the removal. This I handed in, a couple of days later.

Later that afternoon, we received a call from Adam Collins (ABC Producer of “Can We Help” Program). He told us that Greg Hempsell had contacted them and that the ABC did not want to be a “third party” to the dispute. We have copies of the emails he sent my husband which proves Greg Hempsell's attempt and success at coercion. We were denied the opportunity of reuniting with my twin sister, one prepaid return flight overseas, two prepaid domestic return flights and a chance to spend two months in Malaysia with my twin sister, until Greg Hempsell was paid an amount for the “storage fees” which he claimed he was owed.

We were so upset that Greg Hempsell has brought to a halt the biggest event in our entire lives that we drove to the Carnarvon Community Centre to inform Jan Biggar of Greg Hempsell's interference and to obtain her advice. Before my husband could get out of the car, he suffered a nervous collapse outside the Community Centre and was rushed to Carnarvon Hospital by ambulance. There he was diagnosed as suffering from anxiety and had suffered a panic attack with symptoms very much like heart failure. You can probably imagine what an impact this had on my already high stress levels.

On the 11^th September 2008, extremely concerned about my husband's health and upset that all the ABC's arrangements were now at a standstill, in an effort to clear up any misunderstandings between the Hempsells and us, I wrote to them the a letter and went to bed exhausted.

On the morning of 12^th September 2008 (which was also my husband’s birthday), my husband became suicidal and went missing. In desperation and not wanting to contact the Police (for fear that my husband would be committed), I decided to seek out Dr. Austin for help. I explained to him the situation that had arisen and with a real risk that some harm may come to my husband, he faxed a message [17] together with the letter I had typed that morning, to the Hempsells.

I then went to the Carnarvon Community Centre and Chris Armstrong attempted to mediate with Greg Hempsell who, despite being sent a fax from our doctor regarding my husband’s mental state, continued to demand payment of $1050 for outstanding storage fees. Chris Armstrong asked me if I had received an invoice from the Hempsells but at this point in time I had not.

With my husband’s life at risk now and under a great deal of pressure, I agreed to pay Greg Hempsell a SAT determined storage fee backdated to the 8^th July 2008 and prepaid to 31^st December 2008 but he refused the offer. (I was hoping that SAT would consider an amount of $10 per week to be a reasonable storage rate)

I then offered to pay Greg Hempsell by instalments; out of our Centrelink payments but he refused that as well.

Since all my attempts at compromise were futile, Chris Armstrong handled the rest of the negotiations. (In fact since hearing Greg Hempsell’s voice on the phone when he harassed us, my husband and I can no longer bear to hear either his or his wife’s (Judy Hempsell) voices again. Just doing so results in an instant increase in blood pressure, anger and distress.)

Chris Armstrong attempted to negotiate a lower storage fee but Greg Hempsell only agreed to do so on the condition that he backdate the invoice to the 7^th April 2008 instead of the 8^th July 2008 as stated on [6]. This resulted in him receiving a payment of $1210 as opposed to $1050 which he originally demanded at the start of the negotiations. [I2]

As I could not afford the amount that Greg Hempsell was demanding and the situation had become critical, Julee Nelson, Executive Officer of the Carnarvon Family Support Service (CFSS), decided to intervene and make the payment on our behalf. Once Chris Armstrong informed Greg Hempsell that he would receive his money, he still wanted to know who was paying it which annoyed Chris Armstrong. Lazeaway then faxed the Family Support Service an invoice and Julee Nelson made the arrangements for payment that same day.

Chris Armstrong got the assurance from Greg Hempsell that he would contact the ABC, so that they could continue with the story's arrangements, before she emailed the ABC with the outcome of the day's negotiations.

Julee Nelson gave me a copy of Lazeaway’s invoice as well as a copy of the CFSS's bank transfer as proof of payment to Lazeaway. To date we have never received a receipt from Greg and Judy Hempsell for the $1210 that they had extorted under extreme duress.

Julee Nelson stayed by my side at the Family Support Centre and supported me whilst I awaited news of my husband. I was extremely relieved when the Police located my husband. I had to wait until the Mental Health Officer (Tony North) had completed assessing my husband at the Carnarvon Hospital before I was allowed to see and collect him. (An appointment was made later that week to visit Mental Health Services to discuss my husband’s problems and management)

On the 15^th September 2008, I collected my mail to find an envelope addressed to us from Lazeaway Holiday Farm. Fearing what may be inside, I took it directly to the CFSS where Julee Nelson opened it in my presence. It contained the initial invoice [6] for “storage fees”. Julee did not hesitate to draw my attention to the fact that the “payee” details had been omitted, thus making the invoice void. She took a photocopy of the invoice and attached it to the previous invoice [I2] from Lazeaway along with the CFSS's proof of payment.

On the 16^th September 2008, Greg Hempsell finally informed the ABC that he had received payment and that the matter between us had been sufficiently dealt with for him to allow the story to progress .

By the time we left to go to Perth, we did not know if Chris Armstrong had found anyone in the Narrogin area with the capacity to remove our bus from Lazeaway. I was told by Julee Nelson that Chris Armstrong was away as she had to attend to another matter. Julee Nelson was also under the mistaken impression that the arrangements for the removal of our property (and its storage) from Lazeaway was being handled by us. I clarified the facts and wanted to hand our keys (to our property on Lazeaway) to Chris via Julee but Julee told me to “keep them for the time being”. With the situation beyond our control and advice from various health professionals to put the past events behind us for the time being, we concentrated on our involvement with the ABC and the coming reunion with my twin sister.

I lodged an application with the SAT (and included a letter and affidavit) to protect our property until we were in a position to collect it once we returned from Malaysia. Prior to flying to Perth, we paid the Norwesta Caravan Park a storage fee of $100 for 10 weeks storage to cover the time we were in Malaysia. (This was for storage on a normal tourist site NOT in a separate storage or unpowered area.)

On the 24th September 2008, the ABC flew us to Perth where the reunion between my sister and I took place. When the filming was all done we flew back to Malaysia so that we could start to get to know each other after almost 50 years apart.

On the 30^th November 2008, we flew back to Australia and arrived back in Carnarvon the next day.

During the time we were in Malaysia a number of suspicious things occurred including our credit card being stopped twice (even though the bank was informed of the dates that we would be overseas) and the insurance on our bus at Lazeaway being cancelled (although an ongoing monthly auto debit was in place for both the bus and caravan policies with the same company, from the same credit card; only the bus policy was cancelled). We could get no explanations as to why these things happened.

Whilst we were overseas, somehow bank statements that were sent to our private PO Box in Narrogin were being returned to the bank. We also had a mail redirection in place from our Narrogin PO Box to Carnarvon so no one should have been able to access our mail.

On the 13^th October 2008, Gary Boyd (DOCEP) refused the request on my SAT application for the Commissioner to represent us at the SAT Hearing scheduled for the 4^th December 2008.

On the 2^nd December 2008, I rang Warren Adams at DOCEP and addressed some of the points he made in his letter in regard to the Hempsells false statements. He said that he would discuss this with them. I also told him of the coming SAT Hearing on the 4^th December 2008 and said that we would return to the Narrogin area soon after and try to resolve the outstanding matter of the bus.

At the Hearing, the Hempsells told half truths in regards to the total length of time that we had stayed at their park. When the adjudicator ordered me to read out the exact dates that we had stayed at Lazeaway, I did not hesitate to add that I was not given receipts for the majority of that time. Greg Hempsell, however, was quick to falsely testify that they did have the particular receipts but that they did not bring them. (The Hempsells would now have had the opportunity to make up some phony carbon copies of receipts as they paid to obtain a copy of the complete transcript of the Hearing)

Regardless of the verbal agreement that was in place between the Hempsells and us, the fact that Lazeaway was our domicile, the fact that we had with the owners permission erected a shed next to the bus or that the bus was our only permanent home, Mr. De Villiers (SAT Adjudicator) suddenly overturned all three previous legal opinions; deeming that we were not covered by the tenancy legislation and ordered [26] my application “struck out”.

On December 8th 2008, we arrived at Wandering and began making enquiries in the hope of finding someone with the machinery needed to move our bus away from Lazeaway, as well as the willingness to store it on their property for a reasonable fee.

On the 9^th December 2008, after checking our PO Box at Narrogin and finding no mail from the Hempsells, we rang Warren Adams (DOCEP). I told him that we wanted to remove our property by Christmas without any interference from the Hempsells or further demands for money because the other semi-permanent tenants who have belongings stored on Lazeaway do not pay storage fees. He told me that he would get back to the Hempsells and let me know what they want.

That same evening we received an SMS from the Hempsells stating that they knew where we were despite us trying to keep our whereabouts hidden. The SMS seemed to have threatening overtones. We wanted this dispute to end so we drafted a letter of compromise (which due to unfolding events was never sent) which we were going to fax the Hempsells the next morning from the Wandering Telecentre.

On the morning of 10^th December 2008, as we drove out of the Wandering Caravan park to go to the Telecentre, our car caught fire. Luckily we carry a fire extinguisher or we would have lost most of the items inside. Once the fire was out, my husband looked at the area where it had started (under the dashboard) and found that the wiring [P6] had been tampered with. When the police arrived, besides taking photos of the damage and also a copy of the SMS that the Hempsells sent us the night before, the Constable pointed out to us that the driver's door lock had been forced open. We were asked if there was anyone we were having problems with and considering the threatening SMS we had received the night before we had no hesitation in making our fears known to the police (Police Incident Report 101208 1500 11640). Enclosed is the Police Statement made by my husband in relation to the events. We also had a witness to the event whom we mentioned to both the Police and our insurance company.

On the 11^th December 2008, the RAC organised for our car to be towed to Narrogin Autoelectrics for repairs. We contacted Warren Adams again to inform him of the recent developments; most importantly that we would be without any kind of transport. Warren told me that he would contact Gary Boyd so that he could work something out with the Hempsells.

Without a car, we also had no means of buying basic food essentials such as milk, bread, etc. as Wandering only consisted of a Shire Office and Telecentre.

On the 12^th December 2008, we received a fax [30] from the Hempsells via the Wandering Telecentre. The fax stated that we had till the 22^nd December 2008 to collect our property “and pay your outstanding debit of $715”. If we did not collect our property “by this date”, “your belongings will be sold”. (This we have now discovered is both unlawful and illegal) We were also denied access to our property unless we paid the outstanding bill and gave 24 hours notice before going to Lazeaway.

The above fax was signed by Judy Hempsell and again she reiterated that “...since April....you were notified that they were class as abandoned” with regards to our property. (This is a false statement because on the 22^nd December 2008, I phoned the Narrogin Court Registrar who informed me that her records showed “No Court Orders” against us. The Hempsells did put their bogus advertisement in the Narrogin Observer on the 17^th December 2008 as it was seen by a number of people.)

On the morning of 15^th December 2008, just five days after our car was damaged, a Mitsubishi 4WD drove up to our caravan at Wandering. I recognised the driver as Ray Gibbs, one of the other semi-permanent tenants, and also our “neighbour”, from Lazeaway. Without getting out of his car, Ray proceeded to swear at me and make threats. He used words such as “shit” in regards to our property there, “parasites” in reference to us and raved about how we had made complaints to the various government departments in regards to the Hempsells. His words included “….every time you bad mouth Greg and Judy, it gets back to them and they have FRIENDS EVERYWHERE!....”

Now I was well and truly terrified of the Hempsells. As soon as Ray Gibbs departed, I phoned the Crises Care Centre who advised me to report this incident to the Police and did so by phoning Constable Matt Bradbury of the Pingelly Police.

That afternoon, I had my phone appointment with Johnathan Wagner from Legal Aid (Albany). As he had not received the paperwork I had previously emailed him regarding the dispute with the Hempsells, he could not advise me as yet. I paid the Wandering Telecentre, who sent the emails again and waited for Legal Aid to arrange another appointment with Johnathan Wagner.

After being threatened by Ray Gibbs, we were so afraid for our safety that we hired Stuart Brindley (Great Southern Towing) to tow our caravan and take us from Wandering to Williams where at least there was a police station. To our relief, he was able to accomplish this the very next morning.

On the 18^th December 2008, whilst at Williams, Albany Legal Aid rang to inform me that Johnathan Wagner had concluded (after reading all the papers that I had emailed him) that our case was too complex for them to handle and that we should seek the services of a private lawyer. Naturally we became despondent at this news as we did not have the funds to hire a private lawyer.

Throughout all this, my husband told me that if I wanted to save our sanity, health and marriage, I would have to mentally accept losing all our property to the Hempsells. The actions of the Hempsells and the recent events was taking its toll on both of us once again; both physically and mentally.

However, the Hempsells were determined on making our lives a misery and were not satisfied with leaving us alone. They and their friends went so far as to phone the Williams Caravan Park, a number of times, in order to locate us. The Manager (Vicki) informed me, not long after we arrived at their caravan park, that four to five people (including a lady from Popanyinning who rang twice) had rung, asking if we were there; one person even claimed to be a Police Sergeant.

On phoning the Police ourselves, we were told that none of their officers rang the Williams Caravan Park enquiring about us.

With the knowledge that the Hempsells were 'on our tail', my husband and I became very distressed. There were points in time when the thought of living was just sheer misery. Unlike my husband, I had never had reason to contemplate suicide but this constant torment from the Hempsells was unbearable. We both wondered what we ever did to to the Hempsells to warrant this sort of treatment from them.

I became extremely worried and anxious not only for our person but also for the caravan we were living in and our car that was in Narrogin, at the repairers. I became paranoid and suspicious of everyone and everything. I even used a password (ie ‘Angel’ ) when speaking to the Narrogin Repairer (Trevor) when enquiring about how the repairs were going on our car.

Having no one in Williams that we knew, I had no choice but to ring the Carer’s Counselling Line or 24 Hour Police Assistance when I needed help. My husband was also ill at the time with a medical complaint that required attention. The Police should have it on record that I contacted them numerous times between the 10^th - 24^th December 2008. Constable Adrian Hiscock at the Williams Police Station was also aware of our plight.

On the 23^rd December 2008, the Narrogin Repairer delivered our car to us at the Williams Caravan Park at around 5pm. We believe that the Narrogin repairer (Trevor at Narrogin Autoelectrics), who worked on our car, was well known to the Hempsells. The repairs took far longer than necessary and were incomplete. Was it just a coincidence that the Repairer only delivered our car back to us just one day after the Hempsells deadline in [30]? It is also interesting to note that in Judy Hempsell’s later Statement of Claim, the Narrogin Repairer gave the Hempsells the Damage Report on our car rather than us, this was a breach of privacy.

When the Narrogin Repairer returned our car, we noticed that half of the fuel was missing out of the fuel tank, the car was left in a mess, the oil gauge and voltmeter was still damaged, and our dashboard was in several pieces; so we lodged a formal complaint with the RAC who looked into the matter. (Our dashboard was fairly intact after the fire and prior to our car being taken to the Narrogin Repairers )

Work done later by the second repairer (Norm Flynn, Busselton) took just two days to complete although he had far more work to do on it. It is a coincidence that the same RAC Assessor (RAC Claim # 689417000) who assessed our car at Narrogin, also assessed it at Busselton, and on seeing our car did not hesitate to say that the RAC would pay for the cost of the damaged dashboard. The second autoelectrician (in Busselton) also told my husband that the one previous repairer (i.e. Narrogin Autoelectrics) had made a complete 'hash' job of the wiring and everything had to be redone from scratch.

On the 24^th December 2008, we went to the Narrogin Court House to try and lodge a ‘Misconduct Order’ against the Hempsells to stop them from harassing us. I spoke to Barbara (the Clerk of Courts) and was told that no one was available at that time. My husband was adamant on going to Lazeaway, filling our box trailer there with as many essential and personal items as we could and leaving the rest in lieu of payment for the alleged debt. Since I was very afraid that he might be harmed by Greg Hempsell, I decided to go to the Narrogin Police Station and seek their help.

I spoke with Police Sergeant Steve Ullrich for one and a half hours; explaining the dispute with the Hempsells, showing him all the evidence I had with me and relating what had happened to us since coming back to the local area. I told him that as we were told that there was no one in the Narrogin area with the capacity to remove our bus from Lazeaway, we were willing to offer the Hempsells goods totalling more than the alleged debt of $715 in lieu of cash; as well as our bus (once emptied of possessions), to use as on-site accommodation. All we wanted was to be allowed to pick up the rest of our personal property from Lazeaway without any trouble from the Hempsells.

We considered our offer more than generous as our bus alone cost us $16,800 to purchase. We thought that no reasonable person in the Hempsells position would turn down our offer and that they too would want this dispute to end.

Sergeant Ullrich offered to mediate with the Hempsells on our behalf. He told me that he would ring the Hempsells and give them our offer. If they accepted it, he would provide us with a Police escort in order to ensure our safety and see that the peace was kept whilst we removed the rest of our belongings from Lazeaway. He explained to me that even the Police cannot enter a property without the consent of the owner or proper authority. He then advised that we return to the Williams Caravan Park and await his phone call. We realised that the offer of a police escort was unusual and demonstrates the Police Sergeant’s concern for our safety.

Within two hours, Sergeant Ullrich rang to inform us that the Hempsells had rejected our offer, continued to deny us access to their property and had now gone straight to the Narrogin Court to file a Minor Claim against us. Sergeant Ullrich felt that at least the dispute would now be dealt with fairly by the Court Judicial System.

That same afternoon, Greg and Judy Hempsell personally served us with the Minor Claim and the attached invoice at the Williams Caravan Park. This invoice (not including the invoice to the CFSS) was just the second of many others that we were billed for with regards to “storage fees”. Judy Hempsell also sent us an invoice for the expenses that they incurred in attending the SAT Hearing on December 4 .

I found out later that, in the process of serving their Minor Claim on us, Greg and Judy Hempsell also took the opportunity to slander us to Gary (the owner of the Williams Caravan Park) which resulted in him becoming prejudiced against us. He (Gary) refused to store our box trailer in the event that we were able to recover it.

As we no longer trusted the Hempsells and continued to fear them, we left the Williams Caravan Park after being there for only three weeks. We left one day earlier than planned because we were afraid that the Hempsells or their cohorts would follow and harass us or damage more property of ours wherever we were.

On the 5^th January 2009, we arrived in the Margaret River area. My husband felt that we were far enough away from the Hempsells to deter them from harassing us. However, every week or so, I would receive in the post, an invoice for more “storage fees” from Lazeaway Holiday Farm. This had the undesirable effect of causing great apprehension and mental anguish each time I had to collect my mail from the post office. It got to a point where my anxiety became so bad that I sought out medical help, underwent a mental health assessment and was referred to Mary-Jo Duffy (Clinical/Counseling Psychologist) for treatment.

With the Minor Claim Case a priority and time limitations present for addressing it, I spent the majority of my time trying to seek legal advice.

On the 6^th January 2009, as advised by the Narrogin Clerk of Courts, I contacted the Bunbury Community Legal Centre seeking legal advice; only to be told that “there was a conflict of interest”.

On the 8^th January 2009, I contacted the Albany Community Legal Centre and once again I was told that “there was a conflict of interest”.

On the 13^th January 2009, Constable Bradbury rang to say that based on the Narrogin Autoelectrician's findings, the fire in our car was due to “a fault” and therefore the Police were closing the file. This of course does not explain the damaged door lock or the wiring that had been tampered with.

On the 17^th January 2009, the Sunday Times did a story on my sister and I, as there were some rather odd issues popping up with regard to immigration law. This was a completely unrelated issue to our dispute with Lazeaway but it didn't stop the Hempsells (especially Judy Hempsell) or their cohorts, getting on the internet and slandering us at every opportunity.

Here are some of the comments posted by the Hempsells and their friends:

"If Rosabelle Glasby is so desperate to be with her alleged sister, why doesn't she go live in Malaysia. If she was born there, it shouldn't cause any problem. Or aren't the social security payments as generous there?

another great con job by the now famous Glasbys,They dont live in Margaret River THEY are itinerants,They live where ever they can get cheap fees.

Rosabelle Glasby and her Husband, not a nice subject to discuss around here. They have a sad habit of leaving bad feelings where ever they wander, and to want to bring more of the family out to tag along with them, don't go there! They do not live at Margaret River.They have no fixed address!!!

To John, poster 17. If you knew these people, you would not be saying this. Mark is quite capabale of looking after himself, driving and travelling around Australia and overseas. Him disabled, ha ha.

This poor disabled person and carer last year spent 3months up at Cleaverville Beach near Karratha, a couple of months in Canarvon, a couple of months in Malaysia and now are "holidaying-house sitting" in Margaret River!! All payed by us Tax payers!!! They have been living this life style for about the last TEN years.Lets keep funding them! And they want to bring more of them out!

Billy of Perth; Yes we have taken legal proceedings against the Glasby's. They have chosen not to pick up their belongings and pay the monies owed!.We are not a another charity for the Glasby's to use!As stated by the State Administrative Tribunal the Glasby's are Tourists storing their belonging at our caravan park! We have every right legally to hold their belongings till they pay."

These comments are blatantly racist and discriminatory and clearly demonstrate the real agenda of the people who wrote them.

All I can say is, if they think life on the pittance of disability support gives us is such fun then I would like to see them swap places for a while. We suffer never ending discrimination like this. I wonder who in their right mind would want to go from working as a computer programmer, and a medical scientist and having our own home to being dirt poor and treated like garbage. As for being itinerants, we did have a home until the Hempsells took it from us with the assistance of various government bodies that are supposed to protect people in our situation.

Apart from the blatant lies in these comments the Hempsells also violated our privacy which Social Security Laws enforce on caravan parks with regard to divulging private details of their tenants.

The decision of the SAT has allowed the Hempsells to get away with this and the SAT has to be held accountable for this outcome.

We are actually ashamed of having to live on disability support and we are not the sort of people who can just sit around doing nothing. In order to keep ourselves from going crazy we created a website all about the place we love - Western Australia. It has taken many years of work but due to Marc's difficulties in doing the reading required to add more information to it, it is getting harder to keep going with the project. Western Australia - Now & Then (www.wanowandthen.com  was placed on the internet for everyone to enjoy and was added to the Pandora Archive in the National Library of Australia as a work of 'national significance'. I wonder what the Hempsells have done for their country lately!

As for the suggestion that Marc is not disabled... He is classified as sight impaired and his eyesight gets worse all the time. He has severe back pain and has to take Naproxen to ease the pain. When that fails to work he lies flat on his back on the ground until the pain goes away. He has had a number of other issues including heart fibrillation and a couple of hernia repairs. Thanks to the hell the Hempsells have put us through he is also on Amitriptyline Hydrochloride and Paroxetine Sandoz for depression. It is probably not surprising, considering what we have gone through but Marc has now developed hypertension and is at an elevated risk of stroke and heart attack.

Due to the Sunday Times article, the Channel 7 program 'Today Tonight' picked up the story and the airing of it was due on the 2nd February 2009. Not satisfied with the interference they had already engaged in, Judy Hempsell contacted the story's producer (Natalie Bonjolo) and tried to get the story stopped.

On the 12^th February 2009, I sent a message [C8] to the Narrogin Court by fax, via the Busselton Magistrate's Court, informing them that I required more time to prepare my Statement of Defence; until now I had not been able to find a Community Legal Centre who could give me any advice and my first appointment with a solicitor was due on the 17^th February 2009.

On the 13^th February 2009, ABC broadcasted our “Twin Reunion Story” on “Can We Help”.

On the 14^th February 2009, Natalie Bonjolo told me that, prior to our “Today Tonight Story” being aired, Judy Hempsell had rung Channel 7 a few times in an attempt to get our story cancelled. Judy told Natalie that my husband and I were “very bad people”. Amongst other comments Judy stated that the ABC had refused, which Natalie knew to be untrue, to do to our “Twin Reunion Story” because we were “very bad people”. After the “talk” with Judy Hempsell , Natalie told us that we would be better off “walking away from everything” as Natilie had been given the impression that Judy Hempsell would never leave us alone.

On the 19^th February 2009, a Pre-Trial Hearing was conducted between the Narrogin Court Registrar (Barbara Miskiewicz), Greg Hempsell, Judy Hempsell and I (by phone). At the Pre-Trial, the Hempsells claimed that we had never made an attempt at resolving the dispute and that we were the ones prolonging the issue. Both comments are lies constituting false testimony.

I did not want to continue the Pre-Trial Hearing because the Hempsells, apart from giving me an invoice, had not provided me with a “Statement of Claim” so the Registrar adjourned the Pre-Trial Hearing until “Statements” had been forwarded.

Based on the Hempsells past conduct against us, I doubted that the coming Pre-Trial Hearing would result in a resolution anyway; after all the invoices from Lazeaway kept coming.

On the 13^th March 2009, with my request for a “Change of Venue” denied and our inability to afford a Court Hearing via teleconference at the Busselton Magistrate's Court, I contacted Warren Adams (DOCEP) again for help, informing the Narrogin Court too.

Some days later, there was another rather odd turn of events. Along with another invoice, we also received a “Default notice” [32] from Judy Hempsell meant only for tenants operating under the terms of a long-stay agreement. She was claiming that as 'long stay tenants' (???) we had failed to maintain our site. I wonder just how we could have done so since the Hempsells had already succeeded in physically evicting us a year before and were currently denying us access.

The “Default notice” [32] is about a breach of agreement so would this be the same agreement that the Hempsells had refused to give us and had denied us? How is it that we were now suddenly regarded as permanent residents by the Hempsells when the SAT had already said we were not ??? The “Default notice” [32] made no sense at all, considering the circumstances, except to show to what lengths the Hempsells would go to, to try and cause trouble for us.

As DOCEP refused to do anything to help us out of our predicament with regards to the dispute with the Hempsells, my husband and I decided to leave the outcome of the Minor Claim Case to the Court. We were too worn out to continue “fighting” the Hempsells. We realised that it was likely that we would incur a “Default Judgement” and believed (mistakenly as it turned out) that the Narrogin Magistrate's Court Registrar would keep us informed.

In April 2009, my husband, my sister and I flew to Malaysia to attend to urgent family matters. On our return, six weeks later, we headed for Cleaverville Beach (Karratha). The Hempsells knew we went there each year around April/May, as we had done so for the past five years (two of those years whilst residents of their park).

On 25^th May 2009, we arrived at the Cleaverville Beach Campground (Karratha). A friend of ours informed us that the Hempsells had been looking for us.

The Cleaverville Caretaker (Ron) told us that Ray Gibbs arrived at Cleaverville at the start of the season, 1^st April , and remained for a week. During that time Ray Gibbs slandered us to the Caretaker. (It was odd that Ray went to Cleaverville as his normal yearly destination is Onslow) When the week was over, Ray Gibbs continued to visit the campground; apparently to see his friend who was there. We suspect that he was actually trying to “catch” us and I wonder if he intended threatening us again; as he had done at Wandering on the 15^th December 2008 (last year). The Hempsells finally located us by getting Ray Gibbs to phone up the Cleaverville Caretaker who told him that we were there.

After still no correspondence from the Narrogin Court, I rang the Registrar who confirmed that a “Default Judgement” was made against us in the Hempsells favour and that the Hempsells had now applied for a PSSO in Karratha. I asked the Registrar why the Hempsells had done so, as they had already seized $25,000 of our property which was presently in their possession, but she could not answer me. Again, I began to try to make an appointment with someone, this time from the Pilbara Community Legal Centre, who could give me some advice.

By the 9^th July 2009, I became so depressed that I seriously considered doing harm to myself. Life for me no longer seemed worth living. It seemed that the Hempsells, not satisfied with stealing the majority of our worldly goods (which consisted solely of personal property) , were also intent on leaving us destitute. (Dr. Martin Kumar (Karratha Medical Centre) and my psychologist (Mary-Jo Duffy) are aware of this instance)

On the 10^th July 2009, the Roebourne Baliff (John Potten) arrived with a tow truck at our campsite in preparation for removing our only car. He had on him the PSSO that gave him the authority to seize and sell goods of ours to the value of $1,105.50 to satisfy the judgment debt.

However, he was unable to do so because our car was essential to our needs and would not satisfy the judgment debt as, being of 1988 vintage, it was practically worthless.

Mr. Potten was also surprised when we informed him that the Hempsells had procured $25,000 worth of our property, already in their possession, and that we were denied access to it. We gave him the keys to our property on Lazeaway so that the local Baliff there could do his duty, the judgment debt would be satisfied and this dispute with the Hempsells ended once and for all.

Mr. Potten phoned the Perth Sheriff for advice. He then wrote out a Court Order authorising the Narrogin Baliff and the Narrogin Police to enter the Hempsell’s land and remove our property from Lazeaway. He explained that items would be sold to satisfy the judgment debt and that we would be able to collect the rest of our property.

We were so relieved at this news. At last we would get our personal effects back along with the rest of our personal and household property. What meant the most to us was the irreplaceable items in our bus such as our photographs, heirloom jewellry, personal papers (including qualifications) etc. When we were evicted, it was summer, so all our winter clothes were in the bus too.

I was unaware that Judy Hempsell had sent me an email that same morning.

On the 20^th July 2009, I received a copy of the above email with another invoice from Judy Hempsell and rang Mr. Potten the next day for clarification of its meaning.

Mr. Potten told me that after filing his Order, Judy Hempsell rang him and verbally abused him. He said to me “The Hempsells, themselves, don’t seem to know what they want”. He then told me to get in contact with the Narrogin Baliff as the matter was now in his hands.

We spoke to Mr. Voyer (Baliff for Upper Great Southern) and he said that he would contact the Sheriff's Office in Narrogin so that they could attend to our property on Lazeaway. Fearing that the authorities would hand our keys (to our property) over to the Hempsells, my husband warned Mr. Voyer that the Hempsells were untrustworthy and that we did not owe them any more money, even though Judy Hempsell had been in to see Mr. Voyer claiming that we now owed them $2000. We explained to Mr. Voyer that the Hempsells had been “making our life hell” and as they had denied us access to our property, only the Narrogin Baliff and the Police could sort things out.

As Mr. Voyer still had to visit Lazeaway and assess our property, he told us that he would keep in touch with us by email.

On the 12^th August 2009, I phoned Mr.Voyer who told me that it was not “viable” for either him or the Police to remove our property from Lazeaway. Considering our circumstances, he suggested that we seek legal advice. When I asked him if he could at least let us know if any of our items (that should be on Lazeaway from the list [C16] we sent him) were missing, Mr. Voyer refused.

Mr. Voyer sent us a copy of the “Notice of Return of Order or Warrant” which he gave to the Hempsells.

On the 5^th October 2009, I had a phone appointment with Judy Stevens (Principal Solicitor, Peel Community Legal Service) who advised me to keep in contact with Narrogin Court to see if the Hempsells lodge an application under the “Disposal of Unclaimed Goods Act” as advised by the Narrogin Baliff. She also gave me the name of WA Law Society ProBono Co-ordinator, Kosta when I enquired.

On the 21^st October 2009, I contacted the Narrogin Court Clerk, enquired about the status of Minor Claim Case 91/2008 and was told that the case was “dead and buried”.

On the 29^th October 2009, I emailed  Mr. Voyer who belatedly returned to us the keys to our property on Lazeaway.

On the 16^th November 2009, I phoned Mr. Kosta Lucas who sent me the forms for Law Access.

On the 1^st December 2009, I emailed the Narrogin Court as I was still unclear as to the meaning of “dead and buried” but received no reply.

On the 5^th January 2010, I went to the Carnarvon Magistrate's Court as I wanted to be supplied with some sort of document stating that the Minor Claim Case at Narrogin was finalised. When the Carnarvon Court Clerk spoke to the Narrogin Court Clerk the explanation was that the Case was at a stalemate; handed back to the Claimants. The Hempsells had not made any more Court Claims against us.

On the 12^th January 2009, I had another appointment with Judy Stevens who helped me complete the Law Access forms. In her opinion, she felt that our application has considerable legal merit and encouraged me to lodge the application as soon as possible.

On the 10^th February 2010, I contacted Chris Armstrong to ask her what Wayne Bird's (Bird Silos Popanyinning) reply was to her request to remove our property from Lazeaway Holiday Farm; as it seems that he was the only one that could complete the task. She had noted his answer on her file she keeps in her office. It was, “that he didn't want to get involved”.

The current situation

The only property of ours in our actual possession is our 1988 Toyota Landcruiser and 1986 20ft caravan in which we now live (my husband, my sister and I).

We can only assume the rest of our property and permanent home is still located on Lazeaway Holiday Farm, to which we have been denied access by the Hempsells since 24th December 2008. After all that the Hempsells have done to hurt us, we will not venture into the Narrogin Area for fear of our safety.

As we have no other permanent residence, Lazeaway is still recorded (on my driver's licence, insurance papers, bank details,etc,) as our domicile.

Since we know for a fact that the Hempsells have been slandering us wherever possible, I doubt that even the local caravan parks in the Narrogin area would have accepted us as tenants; making a permanent move to another local location impossible.

We could not remove our property from Lazeaway because the Hempsells prevent it from being done. They slander us to anyone that can help with the removal (ie. Wayne Bird) such that he refuses to do so. It seems that if there is a dispute involving the Hempsells, nobody wants to get involved. After all, as one of the staff of the Narrogin Court told me, “the Hempsells are well known around this Court”.

I currently have difficulty applying for work in my field (ie. Health Professional) because all my educational papers and qualifications have been seized by the Hempsells.

I have not been able to and cannot provide people such as the Producers of the ABC “Can We Help” Program, Channel 7 or Take 5 Magazine with childhood photos of myself and my family because, as above, they have all been seized by the Hempsells.

So the Hempsells succeeded in evicting us, denying that we were tenants, stealing all our property, then charging us for “storing” the confiscated property, gaining an unjust enrichment (via the CFSS), harassing us, threatening us, damaging our property (ie our car), defaming us as well as lodging a Court Claim against us without good reason.

Although we are currently still paying insurance for our bus and license fees for the trailer we left at Lazeaway, we have no way of knowing if our property is even still there.

Everyone we have contacted in order to try and get help has washed their hands of the situation. We are effectively homeless and most of our personal possessions are still in the hands of the Hempsells. All over, a so called debt of just over $700 which should never have existed in the first place.

We have been subject to deliberate discrimination, our good name sullied and our goods have now been taken. This issue has never been about money. No one in their right mind would pursue someone like this over such a small amount of money. This has been a vendetta aimed solely at destroying our lives.

We have been so traumatised by this situation that we can no longer even collect our mail from the post office or receive email without considerable anxiety and trepidation.

Greg and Judy Hempsell's intentions towards us are very clear. They abused their position as caravan park owners and acted unconscionably towards us. They had knowledge of our circumstances, yet conducted themselves in a dishonest and deceitful way. When we tried to exert our rights as tenants by complaining to various government authorities, they victimised us. Their actions against us not only border on the criminal but are criminal. They gained a monetary benefit through fraud and continued to hold our goods ransom until finally deciding to steal them.

We have been too mentally traumatized by this to ever go anywhere near the Hempsells again. They set out to destroy our lives in a personal vendetta. They have broken the law a number of times, they have told lies over and over again but nothing has ever been done about it.

We have belongings at Lazeaway that cost us around $65,000 but we cannot get access to them. Material possessions aside, we have childhood photographs and keepsakes that are irreplaceable that we will probably never see again. The court has awarded the Hempsells over $1000 apart from the $1210 they obtained by fraud but still their invoices continued to arrive by post; their last claim being that we now owed them over $2500!

We cannot remove the bus there as is simply no where to put it. We live in a caravan and we have no room for any of the items in the bus (bearing in mind that there are far more of our possessions in the bus and shed than in our caravan). Even if we could find somewhere to put our things the Hempsells will not allow us to remove our personal belongings so that we can give the bus away. We have nowhere to turn in all this and their weekly invoices have stopped because they are not sure where to send them. Caravan parks won't take us because the Hempsells have slandered us to everyone they can and we are left by the authorities to try and sort this mess out ourselves.

Our current situation is, in a nutshell, one of despondency and desperation. These people have got away with criminal actions and they should be brought to account for what they have done. The simple return of our property is not enough to settle this matter now.

-----------------------------------

So why has this all taken so long and why have we got nowhere? Frankly I am almost lost for words. Below is a list of the organisations we have contacted and the various responses we received:

State Administrative Tribunal SAT - Ruled we were not permanent residents despite our home being located at Lazeaway and three duty solicitors (including the SAT solicitor) finding that we were covered by the Residential Tenancy Act.

Department of Consumer and Employment Protection DOCEP - Sided with Lazeaway and showed distinct bias in their dealings with us. We complained but nothing was done.

Albany Community Legal Centre (and two other community legal centres we applied to for help) - Lists Lazeaway as a client despite the fact that they are not supposed to help businesses.

Human Rights Commission - Unable to act despite that fact that our human rights, Ie. the right to be in possession of our own property, have been violated.

State Attorney General Hon. Christian Porter MLA - Simply reiterated what the SAT had said without taking into account we have a document from Lazeaway stating that we ARE regarded by them as permanent residents.

State Ombudsman - Unable to act.

Great Southern Bailiff (Martin Voyez) - Ruled that the $65,000 worth of goods we had at Lazeaway was not worth the fraudulent $770 debt that Lazeaway managed to get the local Narrogin court to impose.

Police Department - Very reluctantly looked into the matter but the investigation (we are told) was done by one; Sgt. Martin Voyez - the former Great Southern Bailiff. Conflict of interest perhaps?

Legal Aid - An organisation that is supposed to help people in our situation but who ruled that our case was too complex and who refused to help.

Law Society of W.A. - Accepted that we do have a case worthy of putting on their ‘Pro-bono’ recommendation list but sadly no lawyer in W.A. has yet stepped forward to help.

Carnarvon Community Legal Centre - Kindly assisted us during a time of great stress and to date has been the most helpful organisation. Unfortunately they can do little to assist us any further.

Peel Community Legal Centre - Gave us some support but can do little more than they have done.

Tenants Advisory Service - Helpful and supportive but with no power to do anything but offer limited advice.

Police Complaints Section - Say no law has been broken but have given us no written proof of this and refuse to divulge anything unless we submit a freedom of information application. Simply confirming a court order has been sighted would have been enough but they refuse to even do that. WHY?

WHAT SHOULD HAPPEN NOW

We want to sue Greg and Judy Hempsell in actions for trespass which involves offences against property; for breach of contract including negligence and for their unconscionable, improper and misconduct against us. We need a Lawyer to act on our behalf in a Pro-Bono manner.

Compensation asked for – consequential and compensable loss, compensation for the pain and suffering incurred (mental anguish and cruelty), defamation (slander and libel)

Outcome sought:

1. Hempsells to pay for all costs involved in the return of the Glasby's property to them at a neutral location
2. Damages awarded for any damage or loss of the Glasby's property both replaceable and irreplaceable
3. General damages awarded to Glasbys for breaching their 'absolute right to possession of their rightful property'
4. Special damages award
5. Punitive damages award
6. Aggravated damages award
7. Vindictive damages award
8. Substantial damages award
9. A public apology to the Glasbys by the Hempsells for their wrong doing
10. A Court Restraining Order preventing the Hempsells or their associates from interfering with the Glasbys or property belonging to the Glasbys

Why is it we have not taken the Hempsell's to court? Simple we don't have the money to do so and they know it. The Law Association of W.A. have examined our case and have put it forward to their members as a pro-bono case but so far no lawyer has come forward to help out.

Below are pictures taken inside our bus. If you are in possession of any of the items pictured here then as far as we are concerned you are in receipt of stolen property:

Following is a photo of our box trailer reg: 8TF 438

this is STILL registered in our name. Where is it?

MORE PHOTOS OF OUR PROPERTY

 

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