Stolen Gear Alert

[blackfoot]

MH is at it again. He has relieved L&W Technical Support Services inventory of 1 x Urei 1178 & 2 x 50" Plasma screens. I thought everybody was hip to his antics or he had given up. Keep your eyes & ears open!

[Gary D]

Quoted from an email circulating throughout the industry:

Dear Industry Colleagues,
You should all be advised that ****** AV Hire (Sydney) this morning intercepted the theft of in excess of $43K of our AV equipment.
In short, we were contacted by a new client who requested a number of projectors, plasmas, fast fold screens and laptops. It was a last minute order.
The client gave the impression that he new exactly what he was talking about, he discussed pricing of many other well known AV companies here in Sydney, talked technical and told us that he had a Martin PA rig and that his main business was band work and the occasional corporate production.
For a number of reasons the hire seemed strange; too many aspects did not add up. We immediately contacted another AV company who we knew had had equipment recently stolen, they led us to a number of other AV companies who also had the misfortune to have equipment stolen. Once we mentioned the name of the client it became clear that it was the same thief.

[muz]

I have been observing the trail of ripoffs this guy has been leaving over the last 10 months or so and I have been repeatadly stunned at how often this guy has managed to rent $50k + batches of gear with really nothing but "talking the talk", a dodgy drivers license and A CHEQUE!

I mean sure, he's an arshole, but seriously, A CHEQUE? And at least one of the vitims was an audio wholesaler, not even a rental company!

I think it must be common knowledge now amongst anyone that has the intent that the AV industry is a easy mark. (excuse the pun). The unreported and unclaimable ripoffs in the industry must add up to a huge amount every year.

Perhaps we need to have a quick look at how the rental car companies for instance deal with this. Even places like Kennards Hire have much better business practices regarding this. Its not difficult, the customer expects to be vetted, it wont damage your business, it doesnt cost.

Its NOT the old days anymore, we dont know everyone in the industry anymore and so its difficult to have their legs broken if they rip us off.
There is also a much wider black market for todays equipment as well.

While I sympathise with the victims, all the ones I have spoken to admit to some extent that they were soft targets for this sort of thing.

Its got to be the only industry where competitors feel compelled to help each other out with a "last minute rental" even when we have never heard of the competitor! (this was one of the "m.o.'s")

While it was nice to pretend for all those years that as an industry we were united (even though as competitors we would happily stab each other in the back and undercut quotes to get "the gig", to the point where it caused margins across the whole industry to collapse for several years. ) I've never understood the amount of trust bestowed on the customers of these businesses. It seemed to basically just rely on the idea that if you wanted to work in the industry you didnt rip it off.

Anyway, he's slipped the net again after a close call the other day.

I'm not a legal expert and I have no idea about this but should we in the forum here not refer to the individuals real name just in case it predjustices any future court case?

Another question that needs to be raised is who is the fence here.
"Randyriver" isnt disposing of this gear himself.

I dont know for sure but it appears the gear is going north in more ways than one.


muz

[rick]

you dont have to be a legal expert to understand that if people do not use the name of these guys in public then more people will get stung.
its ok to use their names if you know what your talking about and you know it first hand and it is the truth !

muz, i think your probably right about the world changing, but as a victim of the hornibrook nonsense i can assure you it is a very simplified view you are taking, they are very clever crooks indeed.

what is actually wrong with walking into a audio business and handing over a cheque....? ... nothing i can think of , heaven help us when the war on terror makes us mistrust every body so that cheques or drivers licences are longer legal and we have to resort to a more serious id check ( tattoos... barcodes implants..?)



nobody i know wants to be the guy in the dock opposite these guys that actually send these guys to jail for the fear that it wont stick including the cops
even some guys that have been ripped off for thousands , myself included just want this to "go away " it has not so and so i guess it will go on.
but everything will find its on level , these guys are not living high on the profits i assure you, they live about as low as a human can go so it WILL end , and the sooner the better i say

i think your being hard on the music business there is a real community going on here and it is still a current thing , we are not idiots , just not clever hard nose money making types , muz i think deep down you know ( as shown by your lament on the audio console parts going in the bin story ) that so i am surprised you need to give this a stir

i can see nothing wrong or foolish about getting caught "thinking you are helping somebody out "
these hornibrook clowns play hard and they play well
who know what tales they really told

and i know for a fact the goods are not going north south east or west in any simple way

it is guys in the music business that cannot resist a deal that buy this stuff, thats why i keep these threads running to help spread the hornicrook word

and as shown several times there are actually good guys in the music business that have bought this stuff and they have handed it back to the rightfull owners when they found out it was stolen .

ever heard of anybody giving stolen stuff they bought by mistake back?
well some nice guys in this business do it ,
and i dig that , there is still some trust and community around

just dont get caught out trusting the hornicrooks i say

[muz]

"what is actually wrong with walking into a audio business and handing over a cheque....? ... "
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My point was that if you took your cheque to say Kennards Hire they would not hire you anything.
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"i think your being hard on the music business there is a real community going on here and it is still a current thing , we are not idiots , just not clever hard nose money making types , muz i think deep down you know ( as shown by your lament on the audio console parts going in the bin story ) that so i am surprised you need to give this a stir"
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Oh come on, yes, we love to see ouselves as a friendly close knit business community but in reality we can be right bastards to each other just as often. Besides that, I gave it a stir because I hear the victims complaining first hand that they got ripped off and my response to them as it is here is why put yourself in a position of being vulnerable in the first place. When I spoke to some of the victims they were the first ones to admit how vulnerable they were to this sort of thing.

My point is I dont believe having good business practices will impact negatively on your business. Its not difficult, its doesnt cost money, it wont lose you business, it will prevent a lot of these thefts.
And it doesnt make you look any less friendly as a business, it makes your business look more together in not anything else.
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"i can see nothing wrong or foolish about getting caught "thinking you are helping somebody out ""

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In context I was referring specifically to helping a competitor that you dont even know. While it may feel good karma wise I maintain that it is very foolish to hire equipment out to an unknown company without any sort of real checking or security.

"and i know for a fact the goods are not going north south east or west in any simple way"
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I still have reason to believe a certain amount of it is headed overseas in an organised fashion.

And yes, I have heard of people giving back what has turned out to be hot gear after they have been rung up and asked why their truck was involved in the dodgy rental of same gear.
Is he just naive? maybe. I hope so.
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just dont get caught out trusting the hornicrooks i say

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Well, really that was my point. As an industry we ARE too trusting and
I was asking do we have to be so trusting. I dont believe we have to lose the "nice" side of our industry just because we follow simple, smart business procedures that are common in the normal businees world.

Muz

[rick]

thats interesting muz, i guess if thats how you feel , goodo ,

i just feel as i wrote as well, i spent a lot of time doing good stuff for free because i know how it feels waiting for help that never comes but in this business, i dont really expect it to come back , it is nice when it does though

but this morning i needed a very big hand shifting some stuff i had not planned on at 8:30 am, i was alone, a made a few calls and everybody said they were too busy to help on such short notice
"you know how it is mate " ,
but by 2 oclock i had more help then i could use, it cost me nothing and if i ran my business a little tighter with a little less trust it would have cost me $300

but because of your post i had a little nagging doubt for a couple of hours this morning , i did not like the way it felt , so i am going to stick with fantasy about having a community going on , even if its just the friends of turtlerock society :)

[Aussie0zborn]

Not long to go now.

[MikeM]

:x Nearly got done by the Hornicrook team earlier this year. Was needing some extra help with repairs as a lot of staff were at Comm Games at the time and got this email after referal by someone who knew MH 20 years ago.


"As we discussed on the phone I am able to help you clear your backlog of

service work.

I have more than 20 years experience in Australia reparing pro-audio gear,

Starting with Klarion Enterprises in 1983, moving to Rank-Klarion and then

freelance work with studios, live sound and music equipment. I was regularly

employed by Jands during the '90s to align the 24 track recorders in the

Mobile facility.

I have particular expertise in power amplification and have designed several

power amp

models which are widely in use. I am happy to repair your Crowns and any

others. My workshop is situated at 2/109 Sydenham Rd, Marrickville, which is

conveniently close to your facility.



I will await your reply. My phone number is 0423 180-197

Regards,

Mark Hornibrook"

Gave him a couple of amps to fix as a trial run. After picking up some parts on another ocassion and promising to have the amps back by the end of that week all went silent we couldn't contact him in any way and there was no one answering the door at Sydenham. I called at least 20 times a day for over a month and got no answer. Then one day I decided to give it one more go before giving up. For some reason MH picked up the call made some lame excuses about problems with the repair etc. I expressed my desperation in trying to get these goods back for the customer who owned them so we made a time when I could come and pick them up. When we got there, there was another surprise, other than the absolute squalor of the place the amps looked like someone had been at them with a hammer!
MH made some excuse about his mate loosing his mind...we just wanted to get our stuff and get the hell out of there. As we were loading the amps into my car MH had the balls to mention that he probably should chatge me for the time he spent working on the amps!!!!! We nearly choked and told him to forget it. He then proceeded to ask whether we could give him some more work!!!! :roll: It was at this point we jumped in the car and floored it out of there.
Had I been aware of others misfortune at the time I would have let the police know but at the time I thought I was the only sucker with an issue with this joker and I did get my goods back however I will never get back the time I lost caused by the stress and agrivation of this issue.

Might be able to find him through whoever lets that property out (2/109 Sydenham Rd, Marrickville)

[Howard Jones]

In an incident verging on the psychotic, my phone rang at 11.30 last Saturday night. I didn't recognise the caller ID, so I answered it, thinking it might be an urgent service matter. A voice said hello and asked "Do you know who this is?" It was Mark Hornibrook. The very fact that this person would think it okay and acceptable to casually phone someone at that time of night should serve as a preface to what follows.

Mark's attitude was all insouciant arrogance. Things were really going well for him, many things were falling into place. True, there were a few people he had to sort out for money and he would be going to have coffee with them and explain everything. Yes, he missed Robert Dale, but he was getting on with life. As I predicted on a previous occasion, this person genuinely feels that he can explain away everything and integrate himself back into our industry.

The phone number that Mark used to call me was 0432-641-038. If you don't feel like answering a call from this person, you may want to program that number into your phone so that you will know when he tries to call. On the other hand, if you have an outstanding claim against him, or just wish to explain your feelings to him, you may wish to use the number to give him a call.

[heathen]

I only hire gear to reputable studios/people, very rarely too. It always bewilders me how these types can get away with stuff like this for so long. The cops don't want to know or can't gather enough evidence so it just keeps going. Time to really nail these clowns, if I were running an AV hire company or the like I'd set up micro security cameras and film any suspect hires, then you would have evidence of the crooks taking the gear and using false details.

Using fake drivers licenses is a crime you would think the cops would be interested in too.

They'll come undone sooner or later but at what expense to others?

[musikwerks]

Howard, are there still outstanding warrants for this guy? If so, perhaps a sting could be organised now that he has established contact?

[walding]

Thanks for letting me know about Mark Hornibrook. This Mark Hornibrook character seems to have NO character at all.

I will let people I know down here in melbourne know about Mark Hornibrook.

Mark Ludwig (the good mark)

[musikwerks]

Those posts were from 2006 Rick.... not sure those guys are still active on the forum.

[Mark Bassett]

Hi all,

Can everyone who does not currently have their real name in their signature at the bottom of their posts please rectify this situaton asap. As per forum policy, your real name needs to be displayed (MikeM, Aussie0zborn, Muz etc).

Please read this post http://www.turtlerockmastering.com/foru ... php?t=2122 regarding usernames and posting

Thanks

Admin.

[Howard Jones]

This is a pretty old story now and the details of past crimes & misdemeanours are not worth raking over in great detail. Suffice it to say that the police had at least one opportunity to apprehend a person over this when they were told the exact day and time of day that a person would be present at a certain location. They did not act on that information.

It's also worth noting that persons involved in this appeared to know more than the legal profession itself about how fraud is defined in the eyes of the law. There were all sorts of tricks used e.g. one would place an official order to buy something but the other one would pay for it using a dud cheque. The first person is not guilty of fraud because he didn't pass a bad cheque and the second one is guilty of something (using a false instrument?) but not fraud. And so the cops saw these things as small beer, although they were so terribly damaging to the individuals and companies caught up in it.

The long and the short of my post is to advise as to what happened on Saturday night and to suggest that those previously familiar with a person's behaviour might ask themselves if anything anything has really changed if a person thinks that it is acceptable to phone another at 11.30 at night. Such behaviour might be thought to come from someone who was highly stimulated.

[spandex man]

Hi all,

Can everyone who does not currently have their real name in their signature at the bottom of their posts please rectify this situaton asap. As per forum policy, your real name needs to be displayed (MikeM, Aussie0zborn, Muz etc).

Please read this post http://www.turtlerockmastering.com/foru ... php?t=2122 regarding usernames and posting

Thanks

Admin.

What if someone uses a fake name in their signature and steals valuable forum quotes?

[rick]

oh well that just comes with the territory and makes people who value their reputation , either post things they would stand behind, or lurk in the background untill they feel they must post , and then its always something they would stand behind.

this forum has none of the trolls that gearslutz has and i think that is worth it for me

[spandex man]

Actually, i just realized i had a spelling mistake in my signature. Not so good when theres only 5 words apart from my name and only one word over 5 letters.

Probably not going to do much for my reputation...