Forgery, stealing – Melissa Caddick’s crimes began long before her $23million scam and disappearance

Missing conwoman Melissa Caddick had a decades-long history of fraud and dishonesty, somehow evading consequences for her crimes every time.

With charm, designer handbags and a silver tongue she was able to fool friends, family, and even her mother and rob them blind, a Sydney Morning Herald investigation has found. 

Her first known swindle was petty embezzlement in 1998, and worked up to $23 million in vanished investments – which finally did her in.

On November 11, 2020, investigators from the Australian Securities and Investments Commission raided her $6.8million home in Dover Heights after she was found to be operating a financial services business without a valid licence.

It was the last night she was seen alive.  

Caddick disappeared for three months and was presumed to be on the run, until a rotting foot washed up on a beach on the NSW south coast, prompting police to declare her dead.