CCCare - Church Welfare Organisation Scams Client

Press Release

Church Welfare Organisation Scams Client

A physically and mentally ill welfare client was conned by his Social Worker to perform 1,400 hours slave labour for a mate. Whilst also being scammed into signing a personal loan with the Social Workers finance company.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE - Melbourne, Australia, January 21, 2009 - A 43 year old man who had recently been discharged from hospital, sought welfare assistance through Christian City Care, a Pentecostal Church welfare organisation based in Box Hill, Melbourne. Over the course of five months he was systematically scammed and conned by the organisations appointed Social Worker, who was also the Director of his own finance company.

The same company who cohered the welfare client into signing a personal loan. Further lies and client abuse followed, with the Social Worker arranging a meeting with a supposed friend who could apparently assist the welfare client to get back on his feet. Much later it was learnt that this ‘so called friend’ was a finance customer purported to have an outstanding debit of $10,000 owed to the Social Worker's company.

This friend was the Director & owner of Connections Consulting Pty Ltd. The welfare client, a web developer, was offered two projects. However both projects turned from four days work, into 3.5 months & 1,400 hours of work. Over this period the welfare client was treated like a lackey. He was ordered to perform additional office duties, was subjected to both emotional abuse, intimidation and threats of physical violence. Towards the end of his harrowing ordeal, he was forced; by fears of abuse, to worked 24 hour periods without out rest or adequate food. In total he received $300.

The CCCare Social Worker promised he would be paid on completion. Instead his Social Worker sacked him two days prior to the planned completion date. When asked for payment his Social Worker stated “I only introduce people, what Frank owes you is between you and Frank, it has nothing to do with me.”

A formal letter of complaint was sent to the Pastor of Christian City Church Whitehorse, Peter McHugh. Who is the Chairman & Director of the Board for both the Church and CCCare. The response was a white wash. Neither organisations accepted accountability for their dodgy Social Worker. Further attempts to have this matter resolved has produced an identical 'head in the sand' mentality.

As of January 21, 2009 the welfare client is yet to receive an apology from the Church, much less being compensated for the 1,400 hours worked. In total more than $48,000 is still owed to the welfare client of CCCare.


About Christian City Care & Christian City Church Whitehorse
Christian City Care (Acronym CCCare) is run under the umbrella of Christian City Church Whitehorse (Acronym CCCW). It is associated to the world wide Christian City Church movement started by Dr Phil Pringle, the senior Pastor of Christian City Church Oxford Falls Australia. It is believed that other enties directly associated with Christian City Churches include 3Ciglobal; C3; Christian City Church International (C3i).


Contact Details
Liquid Pixel
blog@liquidpixel.biz

CCCare and CCCW

If this is the first time you are reading my blog, I thought it maybe a good idea to draw you a quick overview of why the CCCare and CCCW blog exists. Although the full account of these issues are contained in this blog, this overview should bring new visitors up to speed on the who, why and where.

In October of 2004 I sought assistance from CCCare the welfare arm of C3Whitehorse that was located at 27 Bank Street Box Hill, Victoria Australia. Back then it was known as Christian City Church Whitehorse.

On my first welfare appointment I met Tony Ryan who introduced himself as the CCCare Social Worker. In a nut shell the CCCare Social Worker turns out was not a Social Worker nor even a Welfare Worker but held the position of unqualified welfare worker.

Unqualified means - lacking qualifications, untrained, unqualified to perform a job that requires qualifications.

Over the course of Tony Ryan being my CCCare unqualified (unbeknown to me) Welfare Worker he not only cohered me into signing a loan with his own Finance Company Brontobyte Financial Solutions Pty Ltd, but also scammed me into working a total of 1,400 hours for his buddy Frank Greco who owned Connections Consulting Pty Ltd.

Most people ask...How on on earth could someone scam you into signing a loan and get you to work for someone for 1,400 hours without being paid.

At the time I wasn't well. I'd recently been released (early September 2004) from a 7 week hospital stay. I was both physically and emotionally drained. I sought help from CCCare because I had no one else to turn to. No family, nothing (In late 2003 I'd lost a business, my 10 year relationship ended in April 2004).

Apart from existing in a dodgy rooming house in Box Hill, I was practically destitute.

It's one of those experiences that unless you've been there, it's hard to understand the dynamics.

Bottom line, I thought that Tony Ryan actually care about my welfare, so I ended up trusting him 100%. If Tony said jump I would.

After working a total of 1,400 hours on the basis of trusting Tony Ryan and his word that I'd be paid, I was sacked. In fact Tony Ryan was the one who sacked me after receiving a phone call to do so by his Mate Frank Greco.

CCCare and CCCW become involved was I connected both Christian City Care and Christian City Church Whitehorse and made a formal complaint about Tony Ryan. Instead of accepting responsibility and accountability for the CCCare dodgy unqualified welfare workers actions, the Chairman of the Board of Directors for both CCCare and CCCW (Senior Pastor Peter McHugh), wrote me a letter dispelling all accountability for their involvement and responsibility for their unqualified welfare worker employee unsavoury conduct.

I'm now back on my feet again and so I decided to start this blog. People of Australia, the world, need to know exactly what was allowed to happen at Christian City Care. They also need to be informed about the (in my opinion) lack of ethics, to which the senior Pastor Peter Mchugh operated the Board that oversees both CCCare and CCCW.

Born Again Christian Truth Issues

A week or so ago I received an email from someone who claimed they were interested in my Christian City Church Whitehorse blog. I was informed that he attended CCC hobart.

(Because I'm not a dishonest git, like some people, I'm unable to share this email due to a non disclosure attached contained within this email. However I'll provide an overview in my own words.)

The most important aspect of this email that I wanted share with my readers is... This person somehow forgot to mention that he intended to become a Pastor for Christian City Church Hobart. When weighted up against the context of the email, stating this FACT should have been highly relevant.

Instead he wanted me to believe that although he attended CCC Hobart, he actually held some of his own doubts toward Christian City Churches being like a cult and also about their obsession with money which he found disturbing.

Well I took the hook...

He went on to claim he held a number of media connections and that he was a Journalist for a Perth Newspaper. Also saying that he's like to help me get my story out because he believed it what happen to me was wrong.

At this point he wanted to ask me some questions, said they were only harmless, they'll help him gain a better understand of me and my story. However by the time I got to the question about my identity I started to smell a BIG rat. Add that to being contacted by a free email account and I decided to just provide generic answers. I provided nothing that wasn't on the blog.

I don't know any Journalists but I'd think that any one who has worked with ACA (a current affair) and with media outlets would be able to spell. I'd also expect a Journalist to understand the basic concepts of Grammar. However this email was full of typos, spelling errors a riff with Grammatical errors.

Had another Christian City Church zealot tired to scam me?

Well I thought I'd just play along for a while just to see where this all goes.

A couple of emails later, I'm told he'd like to share this blog and my story with his Senior Pastor at Christian City Church Hobart, Lucas Jacometti. Sure be my guest. He was very gung ho about taking my story to the Pastor of CCC Hobart.

(I sent Lucas Jacometti of CCC Hobart along with 60 other Christian City Church Pastors an email about this blog and asking for their assistance back on the 22/05/2008. Number of responses I received... ZERO).

I contacted him Friday by phone 13/06/2008 and asked how did it go with Lucas Jacometti the CCC Hobart Pastor? I'm told oh...it wasn't appropriate to bring it up. However I have a few suggestions that I think would suit you better at achieving your goals with this blog.

Firstly he recommended I change the heading title, it could put a lot of people off side with your story. Probably meaning...It is really upsetting a lot of Christian City Church zealots. He also recommended that I don't publish any more topics about generic Christian City Churches. Instead I would be better to focus my attention towards CCCW, CCCare and those people who wronged me.

As you can see I have changed the title, however it's a lot more targeted now. I managed to cram in another 200 characters to the title...lol

Anyway he also went onto say that he wanted to see all the documentation I had about everything connect to CCCare, CCCW, Tony Ryan, the loan and the work arrangements. Also added that as he was also studying Law that I should actually go Tony Ryan for the loss of income and what not instead of going Christian City Church Whitehorse.

Like that's going to happen...

Anyway, it's pretty obvious that this person as just a stooge for Christian City Church.

However a before I close this blog post I wanted to share a few thoughts with you.

Those of you who are not brain washed by the Christian City Church juggernaut, will probably understand why leaving the FACT and TRUTH out of the first email (CCC Hobart Pastor gig) makes me question why is that the born again Christians I've met or spoke to, all feel it's ok NOT be 100% truthful, open and above all sincere.

Christian City Churches run a lot of programs, I'm going to assume they also run BS101 too!

It's seems the more vocal they are (about their beliefs) and the more devoted (brain washed) to these cult like churches, church sects and what not, the more these born again Christians bend the TRUTH to make it suit their personal agenda.

Just for the record, using quasi justifications (cop outs) such as 'Christians are human too and we all make mistakes'...or...'Christians are human too are we're all open to sin'...blah, blah, blah! Is pure unadulterated crap! It mimics the same type of (BS) responses you receive from Christian cult churches.

Peter McHugh

The notion that you (Pastor Peter McHugh), Pastor Phil Pringle or any Pastor to the Christian City Church movement would have the decency to contact me, was obviously a big misapprehension.

Seems I hold too much faith in people doing the right thing. That's ironic considering that Christian City Church Pastors are all self proclaimed servants and messengers for God.

The same faith, belief and ultimate trust I held in Tony Ryan your (CCCare) Welfare Worker. He gave his word that I'd be paid for the 3.5 months (1,400 hours) work I completed for his Mate Frank Greco of Connections Consulting Pty Ltd.

The loan documents proved that Tony Ryan was working on the 21'st December 2004 for CCCare.

This totally blows his fictional story of events given to the CCCare Board of Directors. This makes him sound like a very dodgy Welfare Worker.

Yet you (Ps. Peter McHugh) still stand by your letter of response, given by your hand, being the Chairman of the Board for CCCare.

Given the fact your aware that Tony Ryan (Welfare Worker of CCCare) used his position of trust, to feather his Finance Company coffers, on the backs of welfare clients of Christian City Care, and you still choose to do nothing, in my opinion doesn't say a great deal about the integrity of Pastor Peter McHugh.

The loan was just dodgy.

However being privvy to the fact your (CCCare) Welfare Worker also scammed me into working for his Mate (Frank Greco) of Connections Consulting Pty Ltd, knowing I've still not be paid even though your Welfare Worker gave his word I would, and you (Pastor Peter McHugh) still do nothing, that's just pathetic in my opinion.

I've often wondered how you could justify his (Tony Ryan's) actions and your own, for that matter.

I don't wish to burst your bubble Pastor Peter McHugh but you may like to peruse the scriptures. I'm sure you'll find more than a few passages that will tell you exactly how you should have dealt with this matter, and what you need to do right now to fix it.

C3Centre Vermont

This blog's been getting a fair bit of interest from poeple doing searches for the follow today:

same ip address
C3Centre Vermont
CCCW Rooks Road Vermont
Rooks Rd Christian City Church Whitehorse
Rooks Rd City Church

same ip address
Whitehorse CCC
CCC Whitehorse

same IP address
Pastor Peter McHugh
Minister Peter McHugh
Rev Peter Mc Hugh
CCC Whitehorse Peter McHugh

One could very well assume that it's possible that someone connected to CCCW Vermont or CCCare or cccw.org.au instead of contacting me to start addressing these issue raised in this blog, have instead opted to gauge the number of search engine listing this blog now has. Maybe this is a way to determine if further action should be taken to address these matters.

Let me say the longer the issues raised in this blog continue to go un-addressed by CCCW and or Peter McHugh or the CCCW board of Directors, the greater number of page one (1) search engine listings will grow on a daily basis.

Minister Peter McHugh

What Minister of a Church, could possible sign a letter that so blatantly vindicated Tony Ryan the CCCare (bogus) Social Worker from responsibility, is out of my comprehension. The mere fact that CCCare had sanctioned the employment of a non qualified Social Worker is shocking. But allowing this unqualified Social Worker to deal with CCCare Clients is deplorable.

How can one say it's OK, alright, for a Social Worker of Christian City Care to do as they please in their own time when it directly impedes, negatively affects and ultimately encroaches on a clients freedom of choice.

Lets not forget that I was a Client of Christian City Care first and more most.

The position that Tony Ryan held within the welfare organisation of Christian City Care was one of supreme trust. Allowing clients of Christian City Care; allowing me to believe, that Tony Ryan was a qualified Social Worker for CCCare was an atrocity. Especially given your welfare arm operates under the guise of a Christian Church.

How on earth is it possible to justify something like this!

The buck on this entire unsavoury mess stops at the feet of Minister (Pastor) Peter McHugh.

CCCW False Social Worker Claims

For those that don't know there is a handy online tool called the Way Back Machine. It's an online archiving bot that crawls the web and takes snap shots of web page URL's and store these in for future reference.

When both Christian City Church Whitehorse and Christian City Care informed me that Tony Ryan was not a qualified Social Worker, I produced the following records.

Instead of realising their goose was cooked, they continued to play semantics and tried to claim that both entries on their staff contact web pages were actually typos.

Finding that they (CCCW and CCCare) had an unqualified Social Worker employed was a big shock. However what was a further shock was that they systematically deleted every page & record that refer to Tony Ryan being their Social Worker.

Obviously their IT guy was that clued up to know about the Way Back Machine.

Web Archive URL's:
(click urls to view archived web pages of CCCW/CCCare staff and titles)

Archive URL Link - CCCW/CCCare 2004

Archive URL Link - CCCW/CCCare 2005


Below are screen captures taken of the above listings.

Screen cap of CCCW/CCCare 2004 staff listings



Screen cap of 2005 CCCW/CCCare staff listings

CCCW Letter From Peter McHugh

A couple of weeks after the meeting between Margaret Fazackerley the Development Manager of CCCare, the CCCW solicitor George Neophytou and my witness, I received a letter from Pastor Peter Mchugh on a Christian City Church Whitehorse letter head.

This formal letter was supposed to be their way of addressing the issues I'd raised concerning Tony Ryan the Social Worker for Christian City Care. However as expected it was a white wash.

I will be adding a scanned copy of this letter to the blog and the Loan agreement documents in the next couple of days. (my printer/scanner is away being serviced).

One important factor that I think everyone should be aware of:

It turns out that Tony Ryan my so called Social Worker for Christian City Care was not qualified. In fact Tony Ryan held no professional qualifications in social or welfare backgrounds.

Intimidation Claims Voiced at Christian City Church

Ref (url link):
Planning: Vermont development

Victorian Parliment 9 April 2003

Quoting The Hon. B. N. ATKINSON (Koonung):

"Unaccustomed as I am to public speaking I would like to raise a matter for the Minister for Planning or maybe the Attorney-General in another place. It concerns the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal, but it is a planning issue. A group of residents in my municipality has been intimidated by a legal firm in regard to a planning matter which is to go before VCAT."

"I would like the minister to take note of the letter I have here and to perhaps give some indication to the residents and the firm involved, and perhaps to other firms, that this sort of intimidation is not on. It concerns a development by the Christian City Church of a church in Rooks Road, Vermont."

"Legal representatives for the Christian City Church, George Neophytou Law Pty Ltd, have written to a body corporate which has lodged objections against this development. What concerns me is the last paragraph of that letter, which says that the legal firm believes the position of the objectors cannot be substantiated and should their appeal at the hearing before VCAT be unsuccessful, the client - the church - will seek an order for costs pursuant to the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal Act. The paragraph further indicates that the cost to the firm's client of a protracted hearing would be in excess of $200 000 and should an order for that sum be granted the firm would vigorously seek payment jointly and severally from body corporate funds and/or unit holders individually."

"This is an outrageous letter because people have an ability under planning legislation to object to developments that they believe will have an adverse impact on their amenity and enjoyment of their property. That is a legitimate opportunity. For this company to suggest that it has judged the objections of the objectors and decided that those objections are not substantial objections and then suggest it will pursue an order for $200 000 in costs if these people proceed with their objections is outrageous and in total contravention of the rights these people enjoy at law at the moment in being able to have their case heard by VCAT. I hope the Minister for Planning shares my view that this sort of letter is not on. "

Foot note:
George Neophytou Law sounds very similar. I'm of the opinion that this is the same solicitor (George Neophytou) who was acting on behalf of CCCW and CCCare when I had the meeting with the CCCare Development Manager as I described in http://www.liquidpixel.biz/2008/05/cccw-mediation-request.html

CCCW Mediation Request

When this entire fiasco about the dodgy Social/Welfare worker at CCCare hit the proverbial fan the majority of emails; least the ones I were sending, were being addressed directly to the CCCare Development Manager. At the time this was Margaret Fazackerley.

Obviously I'd dropped a bomb shell and cast dubious aspersions onto a staff member, I guess no one likes to receive information like this. Especially a Welfare organisation which operated under the guise of the CCCW board of directors and under the umbrella of a Christian Church.

At the time CCCare was made up of about 5 staff & a handful of generous volunteers, but, it was definitely not structured on the size of well known welfare organisations. To put it simply it was a small welfare organisation located in Box Hill, Victoria.

Maybe CCCare and even CCCW were not au fait with Government guidelines when accepting Grants. Though from what I've seen of their proposal submissions, they didn't have any trouble compiling these to meet Government Dept. guidelines.

So in this sense I found it rather hard to comprehend how they (CCCare and CCCW) would not be well versed in the fact that by accepting a Government Grant, the virtues of this also curtails the expectation that the aforementioned organisation, by proxy, must also abide by general Government Dept. protocols when dealing with such issues as I raised with both CCCare and CCCW.

Unfortunately this was not the case.

Instead CCCare, CCCW, Christian City Church Whitehorse Board of Directors and even the Senior Pastor Peter McHugh (who incidentally at the time was the head of the board of directors) all seemed happy to play semantics.

It was pretty clear that I was not going to get a fair hearing; rather ironic when you consider they preach a doctrine that's supposed to based on fairness and goodwill to all.

Anyway because of this I put forward the recommendation that an outside third party mediation service be used to address these matters.

NB - At the time I was still not working, I'd still not received payment for the 1,400 hours web development work I'd completed for Frank Greco of Connections Consulting. Who turned out to be Tony Ryan's Mate and owed a $10,000 business loan to Brontobyte Financial Solutions (also owned by Tony Ryan), which Frank Greco could not service. Hence my Social Worker and Frank Greco devised a plan to scam me into working for Frank to so Tony Ryan could get his loan repaid. Come to think about it that's almost verging on a conspiracy to commit fraud.

Reiterating CCCare was a small welfare organisation and although I didn't expect negotiations to be finalised in a week, a reasonable time frame to me did not include 8 weeks or more. This was just further proof that they were playing semantics.

When I suggested 3'rd party mediation, there was no rebuff, no dispute, so naturally I assume this was acceptable and would be the way these issues would be handled. However when the time came (9 weeks later) 3'rd party mediation was flatly denied.

The only choice (loose term), option given was to meet with the board of directors solicitor and the CCCare Development manager. Originally they also expected me to front at CCCare for this meeting. That wasn't going to happen. Instead I opted for a public venue and also took alone a witness.

I don't know what information was given to the solicitor but he certainly came unprepared. For some reason he attempted to treat me like a village idiot. Whilst addressing that mindset, my witness cast an eye into his brief case, instead of seeing papers all he saw was a pen and a cheque book; maybe he'd planned to do some banking.

Although it was a meeting that I felt was not conducive to a fair and reasonable out-come, I was prepared to keep an open mind and come to the discussion table with both hands laid open. Obviously they had another strategy.

The final straw came when a further barrage of back handed slaps were deflected directly back to the solicitor. Maybe he's also a bad sportsman, but my counteractive words in defence certainly sealed the end of that meeting.

CCCW

CCCW is the acronym for Christian City Church Whitehorse. Just so we're on the same page, they (CCCW) are Pentecostal evangelists. Actually they run things like a corporation than under the guise of a church but that's their business I guess.

So what's my beef again?

The CCCare Social worker Tony Ryan (was my social worker) who performed the following unethical acts which voided my client duty of care.

• Conned me into working for his mate Frank Greco (Connections Consulting) so Frank Greco could pay back a business loan of $10,000 to Tony Ryan who also owned Brontobyte Financial Solutions.
• Repeatedly promised (gave his word) I'd be paid for work but never was. (worked 1,400 hours)
• When I didn't finally get paid I approached Tony Ryan and he said, "I only introduce people, what's between you and Frank you need to sort out with Frank Greco and not me."
• Tony Ryan as my social worker at CCCare signed me up to a personal loan with Brontobyte Financial Solutions. He was my social worker, social workers don't do this.

My Beef with CCCare (Christian City Care Whitehorse) and CCCW (Christian City Church Whitehorse) are:

• I brought the above claims to both CCCare and CCCW however they did nothing. Instead decided to make me out to be a trouble maker. Even though I provided some pretty solid facts and evidence.

Granted almost three (3) years have passed since these ugly events about the CCCare Social Worker (Tony Ryan) were brought to the attention of Christian City Care Whitehorse; Christian City Church Whitehorse; Peter McHugh and the board of directors who reside over both CCC and CCCW.

However I'm the one who lost out here on a number of fronts. It was the CCCare social worker who was as fault and not me. So in keeping with this fact(s) I will continue to keep this blog open and active until such time as CCCW; CCCare; and or the board of directors of CCCare & CCCW decide to address this in the type of protocol and direction that it should (I should) have received from day one.

Christian City Church Whitehorse

Christian City Church Whitehorse is also known by the acronym of CCCW.

Although I was not able to locate Frank Greco at the offices of Connections Consulting Pty Ltd on the 17/02/2005; he magically disappeared, I grabbed a worker from an adjacent office as a witness and entered the Connections Consulting, grabbed my personal items and exited, tossing the keys through the letter flap in the office suite door.

The effect this had on my health wasn't good, so as you can image I took a few weeks out to grab some R&R. When the dust finally settled and I could actually take some time to figure out my next move, I decided to approach Tony Ryan. After all he was my Social Worker at the time, he was supposed to be in care of my welfare.

Again I received the same stonewalling from Tony Ryan who again stated "I introduce people that's all I do. What's between you and Frank is between you and Frank Greco, it has nothing to do with me."

Since getting mixed up and associated with Christian City Care Whitehorse, I'd also been introduced into the fold of Christian City Church Whitehorse. In fact Mr Peter McHugh the Pastor for CCCW had been more than friendly towards me. I felt a genuine feeling of being wanted in the Church.

So I thought instead of getting myself stressed out further it would be better to contact both Christian City Care Whitehorse and the Pastor Peter McHugh and let them in on exactly what has happen and hopefully they'll be able to sort this mess out.

Well you think you know some people, well let me tell you how wrong was I.

Instead of trying to sort this out, they rallied the wagon around Tony Ryan and didn't want to know a damn thing. The Pastor of CCCW refused to speak with me. Even though I could provide dates, times and facts.

The entire process went from worse to worse.

Having very little money means you can't get a solicitor in turns means you can't fight for the truth.

Which in these events it had clearly shown me that in my honest opinion neither my Social Worker Mr Tony Ryan, Frank Greco, Christian City Care Whitehorse, Christian City Church Whitehorse or even the Pastor Peter McHugh of Christian City Church could be trusted further than I could throw any of them.