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Who the Shell are you? The many faces and names of alleged scammer Shelley Crowley

Shelley Crowley rubbed shoulders with Perth’s business elite during her tenure as the final President of the Western Australian Club before it closed due to insolvency in 2018 after 125 years of existence. Since then, Ms Crowley, 66, has been rubbing people up the wrong way as a home renovator and is accused of fleecing builders, tradesmen and customers out of hundreds of thousands of dollars. In between, she was the managing director of a charity Liift Learning, until she was mysteriously dumped. Whist many people know her as Shelley Crowley, many of her renovation victims thought they were dealing with Shelley Knapp or Michelle Hetherington. Which has them now begging the question — just who the hell is Shell? Kukerin farmers Darren and Elspeth Smith are among those licking their wounds after trusting Ms Crowley. They’re nursing losses of about $165,000 having engaged her former company The Renovation House in April 2022 to carry out major works on their Perth property in Wilson. It included installation of a pool, decking and a garage, as well as a complete reroofing of the house. “We had contact with four people from The Renovation House: Shelley Crowley, Shelley Knapp, Michelle Hetherington and (Shelley’s “secretary”) Lisa Harvey,” Mr Smith, 56, told The Sunday Times. “As the months rolled on we came to the conclusion these were all one person.” The couple paid almost $122,000 to Ms Crowley’s company, which promoted itself as “one of Perth’s most trusted home renovation specialists”. “We love nothing more than seeing our clients’ eyes light up when they see the finished project,” it added. On a trip from Kukerin to Perth, the Smiths’ faces did more than light up when they discovered their much-delayed “simple renovation” had turned into a disaster, with incomplete works, while the swimming pool and garage pad were installed in the wrong places. They also had the rude shock of finding out from City of Canning officers that no building permit had been sought or granted for the work and much of what had been done didn’t comply with council requirements. Ms Crowley, who wasn’t a registered builder, had cited the name of another builder in the Smiths’ contract. But the builder, Nathan Atkinson, knew nothing about the job and said his registration had been used without his knowledge or consent. Ms Crowley later confirmed she had not engaged Mr Atkinson to do the works. The farming couple lodged a complaint with the regulator, Building and Energy, which inspected the property and “found all items of complaint to be faulty and unsatisfactory and requiring remedial work,” which it estimated would likely exceed $100,000. Ms Crowley contested the proposed building remedy order and the matter was referred to the State Administrative Tribunal for determination. The Smiths spent $8000 on lawyers preparing their case, but it was more money down the drain because The Renovation House was wound-up following legal action taken in the Victorian Supreme Court by a loan company in November 2023 over an unpaid debt. Usually, when a building company is liquidated, clients can claim against the builder’s compulsory home indemnity insurance, but because Ms Crowley wasn’t a registered builder, there was no insurance cover for the Smiths. They approached several builders to fix-up and finish their house. “No one would touch it because it was such a mess,” Mr Smith said. Eventually they found a builder in Shark Bay who agreed to take it on. It cost them another $150,000. The couple were appalled to find out the only repercussion for Ms Crowley was a warning letter to her company from Building and Energy. They described it as a “joke”. They said their complaint had initially been handballed between the regulator and Consumer Protection, with each saying it was a matter for the other to deal with. “No wonder you have so many crooked builders (in WA) as nothing happens to them. It’s utterly disgraceful,” Mr Smith wrote in an email to the regulator. “More innocent people will fall victim to these low lives.” Mr Smith told The Sunday Times: “This (saga) has been soul destroying. Not just the mess Shelley left us in, but the whole process of trying to get a department to take notice of what is just plain wrong.” He said police told him it was a civil matter. In an email from Building and Energy, he was told Consumer Protection was “aware of the many incarnations of Shelley and can take action should they receive notice of any future wrongdoings”. Ms Smith said the experience had exacted more than a financial toll. “I think the hardest part is just trying to get that trust back,” she said. “We lost that trust and that faith in the industry.” Mr Atkinson almost went to the wall trying to do the “honourable thing”, paying trades that weren’t paid by Ms Crowley on two other jobs that he did agree to be involved in at Baskerville and North Perth. The Mandurah builder claims there were four jobs, including the Smiths’ house in Wilson, where his name was added to the contracts without his permission. Mr Atkinson said Ms Crowley told him she needed a builder because her previous one had suffered a stroke. “After some discussions, I signed an agreement with her . . . unfortunately, as the works progressed, it became evident she was failing to pay invoices even though she was submitting and accepting (excessive) progress payments from clients. “As the registered builder, it then fell on me to pay the relevant tradespeople (and materials’ suppliers), as a moral and legal obligation and to keep the works progressing at an acceptable standard, while she continued to assure me that the invoices would be paid in a timely fashion.” Mr Atkinson said this didn’t happen and Ms Crowley stopped returning his calls and emails. He estimated he was $300,000 out-of-pocket. “My wife ended up selling her investment property in Bunbury,” he said. “She gave me 110 grand to cash-flow the business. My mum gave me 150 grand. I’ve since paid that back. I’ve got a family to support. I’ve got to focus on getting the cash flow to look after my family. “I’m probably the biggest victim … we want to stop her destroying other people’s families. I spoke to a lawyer. The lawyer said it’s a police matter. The police said it was lawyer matter.” Carpenter Scott Turnbull was going through “a quiet patch” when he agreed to work on some jobs for Ms Crowley, who he knew as Michelle Hetherington. “I just jumped on board to keep myself busy for a bit, but it became apparent very quickly that she was not what she was making herself out to be,” he said. “There were projects that I just couldn’t walk away from. There were clients that were just pulling their hair out and I could see that this was just not a good situation. “She stopped paying me. I was owed about eight grand, but I got that from Nathan Atkinson. He got thrown under the bus . . . there was no money in those jobs. (Everything) had to come out of his pocket.” Meredith Scott, a former friend of Ms Crowley, said she bitterly regrets passing Mr Atkinson’s details to her. “I put her in touch with him because she was desperate,” Ms Scott said. “She needed a builder’s name . . . I feel somewhat responsible, because Nathan’s had the most gruelling time. Ms Scott said she was $5000 worse off after loaning her “friend” $5000. “She rang in tears saying she couldn’t go on this holiday that she’d planned,” she said, adding that she was promised she’d be repaid in three months. Ms Scott’s since tried to sue her, but failed after several cat-and mouse-games with a process server. Ms Crowley was eventually served but successfully challenged the legality of the process server’s actions in court, Ms Scott said. Admir Bahtic is one of many small business owners and tradesmen ruing past dealings with Ms Crowley and her aliases. He partly blames stress — from chasing payments from Ms Crowley — for the death of his father-in-law. In 2020, Mr Bahtic’s family-owned business, West Coast Aluminium, did a job for her in Roleystone for the manufacture, supply and installation of commercial windows and doors. “During 2021 when Covid hit we still did not get paid by her and she disappeared,” he said. “So we went to the small claims court and got the paperwork and went looking for her. Money was tight. My father-in-law passed away from all the stress of trying to find her. “(As far as I’m aware) all her projects end up the same . . . no job ended in completion.” The industry regulator this week confirmed it received complaints about Ms Crowley’s company and issued warnings, but one matter referred to SAT was dropped when The Renovation House collapsed in 2023. “(We) strongly encourage consumers to exercise due diligence when entering into a building contract,” a spokesperson said. “If the work is valued at more than $20,000 and requires a building permit, the builder named on the contract must be a registered building contractor. “Only a registered builder can obtain home indemnity insurance (HII), which protects consumers against financial loss related to incomplete or defective residential building work in circumstances such as the builder’s insolvency. “Consumers are advised to confirm the builder’s details match who they have been dealing with and remain consistent across all documents. “Under home-building contract laws, consumers should only pay a deposit of up to 6.5 per cent of the total contract value prior to work commencing. Subsequent progress payments must only be for services or materials that have been provided.” Ms Crowley, now working at an Esperance motel, this week denied all the allegations made against her. “There weren’t any losses to anybody. It’s fabricated bullshit,” she said. Asked if she was completely faultless, she replied: “Correct.” She also threatened to sue those making allegations against her. Asked about her departure from the charity Liift, she said: “That’s none of your business.” A spokesperson for Liift, part of the PeopleKind Group, said Shelley Crowley had only been employed for a short time, adding: “Ms Crowley was employed as Managing Director, and her employment was ceased by the organisation.”

The West Australian exclusiveWho the Shell are you? The many faces and names of alleged scammer Shelley Crowley

exclusive
Who the Shell are you? The many faces and names of alleged scammer Shelley Crowley