Despite being in possession of what police say is $2.5 million in jewellery they allege are proceeds of crime, the Director of Public Prosecutions has not confirmed it will prosecute Darron Marc Levin in the District Court on the 35 charges laid against him. The matter is still before the Local Court and, if found guilty, he’ll face substantially less jail time than if he faced the higher court.
Accused fraudster, Darron Levin has appeared before the Sydney Local Court for the third time since his arrest on 25 August 2026. APAC Business Review reported in August that more people were likely to come forward to police and in September two further fraud charges were laid and a third was laid in relation to alleged threats made against an alleged victim.
Police have told the court their brief of evidence will be complete on November 19th and his next court appearance will be on December 3rd, when his defence is required to serve its reply to the police prosecution brief.
In 2024 Levin faced similar charges that the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) declined to prosecute in the District Court. In that case he pleaded guilty to defrauding a former employer of more than $2 million. If that matter had been heard in the District Court he would have faced a maximum penalty of 10 years imprisonment. He walked out of the Local Court with a 21-month suspended jail sentence.
Police now allege Levin committed further fraud whilst serving that sentence in the community.
If he was to be convicted in the District Court he would face a total of 25 years imprisonment for his current fraud related charges, if convicted in the Local Court the maximum is six years.
Shipping containers go missing
In the early 2000s, Michael Amler established a successful home shopping business, Concepts Direct. The company sold its own branded products through home shopping programs on television as well as a chain of nine retail outlets in major shopping centres.
Two of those shops were at Westfield centres in the Sydney suburbs of Hornsby and Parramatta where Levin worked in middle management. Amler says Levin would visit him at his shops where the two stuck up a relationship.
According to Amler, Levin inquired about the source of his products, which were mainly Chinese manufactured household items bought from local wholesalers and re-branded with the Concepts Direct label.
Says Amler, “Darron approached me and told me he had connections and could purchase these goods directly from factories in China at a much lower price. In June 2011 we travelled to China together, visited a number of factories and placed orders.
“It was a very successful and profitable venture, and I had no reason to suspect this wasn’t the beginning of a fruitful relationship.”
Christmas bells turn to alarm bells
According to Amler, things quickly went sour. “As we made plans for a second shipment in 2011,” he says, “Darron convinced me that I needed to be shielded from my partners in other business ventures and that he should travel to China alone to arrange the next big shipment in time for Christmas.”
According to Amler, shipping containers of goods were due to arrive in September and they never showed up.
He says, “When the goods didn’t arrive Darron had no explanation. Eventually we accessed his company email account and discovered all the goods we had paid for had been shipped to other retailers here and, in some cases, other countries.”
Levin was reported to police but, says Amler, police told him as the goods were diverted from Chinese factories the alleged crime had been committed in China not Australia. This was despite the allegation that the goods were purchased with funds from an Australian company and had been allegedly stolen and distributed in Australia.
In some instances, he says, the goods appeared in retail outlets of competitors with stickers hiding the original Concepts Direct brand. Police apparently interviewed several local store owners who had bought goods from Levin, but the investigation went no further.
The total retail value of the goods that Levin had allegedly stolen was $1 million.
It choked off Concept Direct’s cashflow at the most important trading period of the year, Amler was unable to pay his creditors, and it forced him out of business. “It ruined me and the business I had spent years building,” he says. “Placing my trust in Levin had cost me everything financially and emotionally as well.”
Levin’s lottery windfall
Says Amler, “I later found out one of Darron’s colleagues at Westfield had won $100,000 in the lottery. He offered to invest the money for the winner who handed over the entire amount. It was a scam and the entire winnings had been stolen.”
Though he is unsure of the exact circumstances, he believes Levin’s employment at Westfield was terminated for theft. “One of his responsibilities,” says Amler, “was for the carparks, which then still had a lot of cash transactions. My understanding is that he was eventually fired for stealing money from the carpark takings.”
A spokesperson for Scentre Group said “by way of background” they could confirm Levin was once an employee but declined written requests to answer questions as to whether it had knowledge of the alleged theft or fraud against one of its tenants.
Missing in Action
In 2008, Levin set up a company called Missing in Action (M.I.A.) Pty Ltd. His co-directors, Ian Kenneth McLellan—who was born not far from Levin’s birthplace in Johannesburg, South Africa—and George Georgas could not be contacted for comment.
The online company sold a number of different products including mosquito repellent wrist bands, coffee machines, exercise rubber bands, solar powered back packs and a hairspray that promised to eliminate bald patches within one day.
The company website claimed it had offices based in China and specialised in “AS SEEN ON TV”, which was the business Amler had run. Amler says some of the products were similar to those sold by his company but not the same.
In 2011, Levin hired a Sydney-based web design company to build websites for Missing in Action and the Hairbuilder hair restoration spray. The owner of that company says he refused to pay for the websites.
Missing in Action was deregistered in July 2014, three months after he launched the most audacious of his criminal enterprises.
The Talented Mr Levin
Save for maintaining his own name, in April 2014 Levin engineered a dark scheme built on a fictitious personal and professional persona, preying on the trust of a family-owned business whose principals soon treated him as one of their own.
Levin was hired by Sydney-based company, NMBE Pty Ltd that owns a number of retail, office and commercial properties across the city.
He was initially employed as an asset manager and later promoted to general manager. Says a company director, “His role involved managing leasing activity, including dealings with tenants from the commencement of a lease through to their departure.”
That role put him directly in charge of high-value transactions:
this included major renovations to properties owned by the company and the collection of rental guarantees and bonds on commercial lease agreements many of which were valued in the hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Over the time of his employment, the company director, who asked not to be identified, says Levin cultivated a close personal relationship with the owners of the family operated business. He says, “Darron became a trusted friend, we socialised together, went to family gatherings and even went on overseas holidays.”
A breach of trust
According to him, it was that level of trust that allowed Levin to conduct business with little oversight. Says the director, “Levin was employed for approximately seven years. In the later stages of his employment, concerns arose that he may have been engaging in fraudulent conduct. His employment was terminated in 2021 and an investigation commenced.
“Our investigation identified what we believe to be fraud totalling more than $2 million. This included payments allegedly obtained from builders and service providers engaged to undertake work for NMBE, as well as funds connected with departing tenants.
“We identified letters that appeared to have been created fraudulently and included bank details believed to be controlled by Mr Levin or members of his family.”
The multimillion-dollar fraud
Police and the (DPP) investigated Levin over a number of transactions for which they secured a conviction. Documents obtained by APAC Business Review show the alleged crimes he committed went far beyond those for which he was charged and convicted.
“We are confident that the identifiable loss was approximately $2.1 million,” says the NMBE director. “However, our best estimate is that the total may have been substantially higher, potentially at least double that amount, because of the difficulty of tracing payments allegedly made directly to Levin by third parties.
“For approximately two years, we provided police with statements, records and other information arising from our investigation. Levin was eventually arrested and charged, though only in relation to a limited number of matters.
“We were advised that further charges, representing a significant portion of the remaining alleged loss, would be pursued after the initial court proceedings. To our knowledge, this has not occurred.”
Police and DPP drop the ball
Despite documentary evidence pointing to millions of dollars in fraudulent transactions, the DPP proceeded with the case through the Local Court rather than the District Court.
The consequences of this were disastrous for Levin’s further alleged victims as the lower sentencing guidelines in the Local Court saw him escape jail time and walk out of the court with a suspended sentence.
As reported by APAC Business Review in July, one of his alleged victims says Levin passed off a bad cheque for $90,000 whilst awaiting sentencing. That man, who wishes to remain anonymous, says he provided a statement to police shortly after Levin was arrested on current charges in August.
Victims lured in after Levin walks
With evidence gathered by NMBE pointing to a total fraud quite possibly over $4 million, their expectation was that he would face significant jail time.
Says the NMBE director, “Earlier this year, I was contacted by several people who said they had also been victims of Mr Levin’s conduct after he walked from court. Hearing their accounts was deeply upsetting.
“In my view, police and the DPP should be held accountable for the decision not to pursue the outstanding matters and for the decision to proceed in the Local Court. Those decisions have ruined many lives that ought to have been protected by the police.”
That director has contacted police detectives conducting the current Levin investigation but says they have not indicated whether they will include further evidence he has offered in what they say is an ongoing investigation.
