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A former Village Roadshow staffer allegedly stole and sold a truck used in the movie Aquaman, while he and a colleague colluded with a contractor to funnel company funds into private mansion renovations and traded thousands of Sea World tickets for personal luxury cars, according to blockbuster embezzlement accusations detailed in Supreme Court documents. One of the former staff members hosted a lavish event at Sea World Resort, according to the court filing, giving away more than 50 nights’ accommodation as well as catering. Village claims one of the workers told a colleague “we can do anything we like”, when working out how to cover up their alleged fraud. Details of the $1m-plus embezzlement allegations by the theme parks and film studio operator against its former CFO and another ex staff member have been revealed in a statement of claim, obtained by News Corp Australia late on Thursday. Village alleges a long-running fraud scheme worth upwards of $1m by the group’s trusted former chief financial officer Dean Humphreys, 56, and a second man, whose name has been suppressed by the court. Hundreds of thousands in company funds were allegedly used by both men to renovate their private mansions and $337,000 in Sea World tickets were traded for luxury cars, according to the 104-page claim. The company alleges the unnamed man stole 1983 Chevy Silverado truck used in the Aquaman movie and later sold it. Village is seeking the return of a substantial redundancy payout received by the unnamed ex-staffer. Mr Humphreys, who the claim said was on a salary of $432,600 plus super, had his assets frozen earlier this month, with his wife Tracey also named on the freezing orders. Ms Humphreys is not accused of wrongdoing. The second man and a woman are also subject to the orders, but successfully argued to have their identities suppressed and are identified on the redacted statement of claim as “ABC” and “DEF”. Village Roadshow operates Movie World, Sea World, Wet’n’Wild, Top Golf, Australian Outback Spectacular and Paradise Country on the Gold Coast as well as its national cinema chains, marketing consultancy Opia and its film and TV production and distribution businesses. The court heard Ms Humphrey, unlike her husband, was not accused of “deceit or dishonesty”. No charges have been laid in relation to the court action, which Justice Morrison described during the initial hearing as “in an embryonic state”. According to the claim, Mr Humphreys and the other man had building and plumbing companies complete work on their private homes and had invoices for the work made out to Village. According to Village’s claim, the unnamed man took possession of a 1983 Chevrolet Silverado, used during filming of Aquaman on the Gold Coast, “without authorisation” in 2019. He allegedly sold it for “at least $15,000” in November 2021 – but Village alleges it was insured for $44,000. The unnamed former staffer allegedly hosted a lavish Sea World party, with resort catering and the equivalent of more than 50 nights’ accommodation being paid for by his employer. The man also arranged for his guests to have breakfast and lunch at the resort – which was allegedly never reimbursed. The claim said a $120,000 kitchen reno at the unnamed man’s home was ultimately paid for by Village, including an oven, dishwasher, microwave, fridge and $15,845 set of bi-fold doors. According to the claim, a former regular contractor to Village paid the supplier invoices and in turn claimed $133,000 from Village using “false invoices”. The contractor allegedly received a $10,000 kickback from the scheme, which was “paid for directly by (the unnamed man)”. Almost $300,000 of work was then completed on the second man’s outdoor entertainment area – with Village footing the bill for that too. According to the claim, Village was invoiced and paid for more than $60,000 in work on Mr Humphreys’ home, including an outdoor entertainment area, bar and pool table. According to the document, Mr Humphreys emailed another colleague telling them he’d had lunch with the builder who worked on the second man’s house and that he’d complained they were “owed a shit load for private work done for some senior execs (you know who)”. He later emailed them saying Village would cover the payments and he’d “prefer this remaining confidential so thinking we could cover some of this ($140k) through P & L (profit and loss) over seven months and hide some of it (160k) through variations in capex (capital expenditure)”. He then emailed again saying he could as the builder to invoice the work under a Sea World Admin fund to further cover his tracks. In January this year, according to the claim, the builder sent Village an invoice for $359,831 that was marked “SeaWorld administration rectification works”. The company alleges the invoice was actually for work done on the homes of the two former employees. According to the claim, Mr Humphreys and the second man brokered a deal with unrelated tourism company Sea World Cruises to supply 3000 Sea World tickets, worth $337,00 over three years, in exchange for two new Audis, each worth more than $60,000. Under the agreement, the cars were supposed to be “pool” vehicles for the use of Village staff, but were allegedly instead taken and exclusively used by Mr Humphreys, the second man and their families. Under the same deal, Mr Humphreys subsequently obtained a Tesla Model Y, which Village claims was exclusively used by him and his family. Ownership of one of the Audi was later transferred to the unnamed man, while the other Audi and the Tesla were transferred to Mr Humphreys and his wife, according to the court filing. Village is seeking ownership of a BMW allegedly held by Humphreys, which was purchased for $75,536 with Village funds in 2023. According to the claim, Village had unsuccessfully asked for the vehicle to be returned earlier this month. Both Humphreys and the second man are also alleged to have retained ownership of vehicles purchased via novated leases by Village. Company fuel cards are also alleged to have been misused by both men -who allegedly racked up more than $30,000 in charges for cars being used by family members. Confidentiality orders made for the case, that restrict its public listing, mean it is not known if any of those defendants have filed a defence. Village Roadshow has requested a four-day trial later this year. https://www.goldcoastbulletin.com.au/business/village-roadshow-exec-allegedly-took-aquaman-truck-traded-tickets-for-cars-in-alleged-fraud-scheme/news-story/619505afd0be4efda110b8d70c608d0f?fbclid=IwdGRjcASrBxtleHRuA2FlbQIxMQBzcnRjBmFwcF9pZAo2NjI4NTY4Mzc5AAEeNIM4KuWetYYo-bfyhtlLZLL9tFIidRE9MCvbm7ISJAIblT7d0sIM0BspmKU_aem_qBjI02CYc7l7YS65Pn35CA

The DC fatigue meter is sitting at a high, but Village’s direction is becoming increasingly obvious with the recent cuts to operating hours. It’s starting to feel less like a theme park designed for fun and more like a corporate efficiency machine. I hope it doesn’t drag on forever and that the parks are sold ASAP.

Both Movie World and Sea World have reduced operating hours during the next off peak season Movie World: Sea World: Interesting... At least tickets are only $99 for those days.

I definitely see Village just not giving two shits about the area and chucking a cheap ride there and calling it a day but a man can dream.

Man I love how unrealistic these rides are in scale lol Would it be controversial to expand the area out to the carnival games and restaurant? Like everything up to the showcase building is Spooky Island themed, that way you can have Dead Mike's as a restaurant and you'd have more area to work with for a ride. I feel like another potential idea is to make the showcase building a permanent indoor area

Jesus christ.

Village hate retheming entire facade areas. Have a look at how many times they've re-used the HSD set now. No, if they're going to reopen that area, it's going to be with minimal cosmetic changes to the current facades.

Our parks have embraced the rollback theme: shorter hours, cutbacks, and taking the easy option.

If they were to go to town demolishing the whole area tomorrow I’d I want to see one of two things done to DC Villains. One thing I’d want to see them do is tie it back into the western area as it was for decades and put absolutely anything remotely decent in the showstage that at least makes some use out of such an under utilised building that should of been taken proper advantage of for a ride or a new western show as soon as Maverick closed. The other idea i would love is for them to tie it into Scooby considering its right next to the ride and the first thing you see exiting the shop. I don’t particularly if it would be Spooky Island or Coolsville but I would love to see a stunt show with Mystery Inc solving a mystery and unmasking a villain inside the showstage as well. There’s a few ride ideas they could probably barely fit in where doomsday squatted but putting a permanent use to the show stage is one of the main things I want to see from MW in the next decade and putting a show or small dark or flat ride in there would be ideal personally.

Or let’s keep DC out of this corner of the park

One of those 2 Skyfliers on the right would work. Or takeover the Showcase hall, put in /something/, then put Dead Mikes on either Doomsday's grave, or the facades between Bizarro and Croc.

Not that long ago DW was generally more open about upcoming ride maintenance. These days the page feels much more focused on current closures and near term dates, with less visibility of what's coming down the track. DW's maintenance page feels like everything is written in pencil. Sucks for guest who want to plan their holidays.