Adelaide shipping container death plunge victim Troy Kellett’s Tony Mokbel Mick Gatto connection

Questions have been raised over the bizarre death of a truck company boss who mysteriously died just hours after his gangland-linked business sold for $10million.

Troy Kellett, 43, fell to his death from the top of a shipping container in Adelaide’s Outer Harbour docklands port in South Australia at 12.30am on Sunday.

Two people with him have been charged by police over ‘unrelated’ firearms offences after they were allegedly found with an unlicensed and unregistered weapon.

It’s been revealed his company was originally owned by an associate of notorious underworld figure Tony Mokbel and colourful Melbourne identity Mick Gatto.

Now friends of the company boss want to know why Mr Kellett was on the top of the shipping container in the middle of the night – and why he was even in Adelaide.

Troy Kellett, 43, fell to his death from the top of a shipping container in Adelaide’s Outer Harbour (pictured) in South Australia at 12.30am on Sunday

Mr Kellett’s Melbourne-based shipping container transport business Kellett Australia had been operating since 1998, focused on metro and country Victoria deliveries.

His fleet of trucks, trailers and forklifts were part of a company which saw a large sale of shares to a new mystery buyer in April last year.

Friends of the dead man say $10million, believed to be from the sale of the firm, was only transferred into his bank account last Friday, just hours before he died.

They say he had just finalised the sale of the company to an Adelaide firm. 

‘[Then] he’s found dead in Adelaide,’ the friend told the Adelaide Advertiser. ‘I just don’t get it. I really don’t.’

They are baffled why Mr Kellett was even in Adelaide on an apparent delivery run, after he was said to have taken an ‘urgent’ call on Saturday for a load to be shipped.

‘Troy doesn’t drive, he hasn’t driven for years,’ they said. ‘He’s got in the teens of drivers there that could do the run. I don’t see why he’d be there.

‘It’s not like Troy to drive, it’s not like Troy to take off on Saturday when he’s got his kids. Troy wouldn’t drive for no reason.’

The friend also questioned why Mr Kellett was on the roof of the shipping container before he fell several metres to his death.

‘There’s no need to be on top of a container,’ they added. ‘Why was he on top of a container? And why was he up on top of a container at 12.30 at night?

‘The only conclusion I can come up with is that he was hiding. Something happened and he was hiding.’

It’s now been revealed his trucking company was originally owned by an associate of notorious underworld figure Tony Mokbel (left) and Melbourne identity Mick Gatto (right)

Friends of the dead man say $10million, believed to be from the sale of his firm Kellett Australia (pictured), was only transferred into his bank account last Friday, just hours before he died

Police have said there are no suspicious circumstances to the tragedy, but his friends say the death needs to be investigated more thoroughly.

Kellett Australia was registered with ASIC through an off the shelf company bought through Tom Kotsimbos’s firm Abbotts Incorporation Services in 1999.

Mr Kotsimbos has previously been linked to shell companies set up completely legally and bought off the shelf by Mokbel and Gatto.

He was a director of Kellett Australia for one day until the company was taken over by Mr Kellett’s brother Corey, before Mr Kellett himself took ownership in 2003.

He was still listed as the sole director when he died despite the notice of the share sale to an unnamed buyer in company records and the reputed $10million deal.

There is no suggestion of any criminality by Mr Kotsimbos or Mr Kellett, or any involvement of Mokbel or Gatto.

The two men with Mr Kellett at the time of his death have been bailed to appear in Port Adelaide Magistrates Court on August 7 to face the firearm charges.

Police say their inquiries are continuing.

‘Police are preparing a report for the coroner in relation to the non-suspicious death of Mr Kellett at Outer Harbour,’ said a spokesman.

‘The police investigation into the men’s activity at Outer Harbour is ongoing.’