Nissan Australia allegedly scammed out of $1.6 million

Cash, drugs, and Nissan X-Trail family SUVs: inside

the multi-million dollar ride-share deal that went wrong.

Nissan Australia has allegedly been scammed out of approximately $1.6 million in outstanding finance payments by a small Melbourne business with connections to organised crime.

The matter is before the Federal Court, and Drive understands lawyers are preparing for the next hearing in April 2022.

HiRide – a self-described ‘rental car and ride-share’ start-up currently undergoing liquidation – took delivery of

approximately 200 X-Trail SUVs (valued at an estimated $5.6 million) from Nissan Australia on a 28-day deferred-payment finance plan in early 2021.

The ride-share start-up is accused of selling some of those vehicles to private buyers – or gifting them to companies associated with its directors – before defaulting on approximately $1.6 million worth of payments, and announcing insolvency two months after taking delivery of the cars.

Liquidators investigating the now-defunct company on behalf on Nissan Australia told Drive they believe there is no evidence HiRide had loaned its vehicles to paying customers under its purported ‘ride-share’ business model, and have described the arrangement as “improper.”

According to publicly-available court documents, HiRide was partially owned and run by aspiring real estate developer David Tricarico – who spent five years in prison between 2011 and 2016 for importing the chemical P2P used to manufacture methamphetamine (also known as ‘ice’).

At the time of his arrest,

the then-23-year-old was allegedly associated with infamous narcotics kingpin and underworld figure Tony Mokbel. Mr Tricarico – who was educated at the prestigious Melbourne private school Xavier College – did not comment on the case when approached for further information by Drive.

However, in a court-lodged defence,

the former sole director described the charges as “ambiguous, embarrassing, frivolous, [and] vexatious.”

The post Nissan Australia allegedly scammed out of $1.6 million appeared first on Drive.