A young Dubbo man who worked with Dene Broadbelt on preparations for the failed Infinity Festival is owed almost $3000 in wages by the alleged conman.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
Jordan Hurkett was hired by Broadbelt in January as the operations manager for the Infinity Music Festival in Narromine and he performed at least 50 hours of work.
When the project fell over and Broadbelt disappeared.
Jordan tried contacting him but was unsuccessful and then began to find out some of the former radio announcer's dark past. It was at that point he realised he was unlikely to ever see the money he was owed.
"I applied for a job on Gumtree because I was looking for work. I didn't have an interview. He told me I got the job and then sent me a contract, which said I would get $42 an hour. I was happy about that," Jordan said.
" I had the title of Operations Manager for the festival.
"It was originally happening in Dubbo but he said the fees were too high and that was why it changed to Narromine. I came in after he had been negotiating with Dubbo."
In a busy week, Jordan, Broadbelt and another young female employee tried to organise for the Festival to be held in Narromine.
"There was another girl I was working with who was hired as events director. We did all this at the motel he booked here. We went out to Narromine and did a scoping of the area and measurements and had a meeting with the mayor," he said.
"It was all go ahead. We had a meeting with the parents of a young guy who was killed and they were raising funds for the family. He promised them an amount of money from the profits.
"After that, he stayed here for one more day and left. I approached him about my pay and he told me it would be here. He sent me a fake payslip and said it would be in within three to five days."
When the money didn't arrive, Jordan tried to call Broadbelt, only to find his phone was switched off and he had cut other means of communication like Facebook.
Before his disappearance, Broadbelt also tried to force his female employee to pay the hotel bill.
"He tried to turn the bills back on us. I refused to pay anything. I'm not sure if the other girl did or not," Jordan said.
"I've tried to make contact with him but no luck. He just vanishes."
There is a Facebook group Dene Broadbelt Support Group, which has been started to try and discover just how many people have been scammed by Broadbelt, or are owed money. Jordan said there are approximately 150 people who are claiming to have been ripped off.
"I can't believe he has been able to fool that many people without being caught. I hope he is brought to justice soon but if he keeps doing it, sooner or later he is going to scam the wrong person," Jordan said.
