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.
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’).
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David Tricarico (Source: adepto.net.au)
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.