As homicide cops closed in on wife killer Borce Ristevski, so too were the debt collectors who were chasing him for an extraordinary $51,102.18 Westpac credit card debt.
Daily Mail Australia can exclusively reveal how Ristevski was drowning in debt – and deceit – in the months after police discovered his wife Karen’s body in remote bushland, in early 2017.
Ms Ristevski vanished from the family’s Melbourne home in June 2016, sparking a massive missing person’s investigation. A hiker found the mother-of-one’s body dumped in a national park eight months later, with husband Borce – a pallbearer at her funeral – this year confessing he had killed her.
Now court documents have revealed the scale of the financial disaster that was Borce’s life in May 2017, while he was still concealing that he had killed Karen, dumped her body and lied to his loved ones about what happened.
Financial strife: Borce Ristevski (with Karen on right) owed $51,102.18 debt on his Westpac credit card. A statement of claim said paid ‘$0.00’ off the bill over four years
The documents reveal Ristevski failed to pay a cent off a whopping $28,666.77 credit card bill for four years until debt collector, Credit Corp Services Pty Ltd, took him to court.
The credit card had an interest rate of 19.99 per cent and the interest mounted until he was left owing an extra $22,000 in payments.
Ristevski did not file a defence on his behalf to the court and he was ordered to pay up, by default judgment.
Ristevski had previously denied to a journalist that he and Karen were ‘dogged by debt’, but this case appears to show that was yet another lie.
The matter came at the same time police were turning up the heat on Borce, then the prime suspect in Karen’s disappearance.
The family store, fashion boutique Bella Bleu, was shut down in May 2017 – the same month a magistrate made a default judgment ordering Borce Ristevski to pay up
The credit card lawsuit may have been the final straw for the Bella Bleu shop that Borce had continued to operate after Karen’s death.
He shut down the shop, at Watergardens shopping centre, that same month. ‘FINAL DAYS EVERYTHING MUST GO 50% OFF STOREWIDE! (sic)’ a Facebook post said.
A massive credit card bill wasn’t the only bad debt Ristevski has had.
The Australian newspaper has previously claimed that a rag trade business ran by Ristevski and his brother, Vasko, collapsed owing $600,000 in debts.
That led to a caveat being placed on Borce’s family home. (A caveat being a document which stops a property from being sold or transferred.)
Ristevski put his Avondale Heights home, ‘one of the area’s finest homes’, up for rent for $900 per week in October 2017.
After more than a year of denial, Ristevski was charged over his wife’s death that December.
Ristevski was remanded in custody until earlier this year, when he admitted Karen’s manslaughter and was jailed.
Ristevski put the family home in Avondale Heights up for $900-per-week rent in October 2017
A report claimed a caveat was placed on the home, preventing its sale or transfer
The Ristevskis’ financial situation had long been a focus of the police investigation into the woman’s disappearance.
Ristevski initially told detectives Karen had stormed off from the family home on the day she vanished, June 29, 2016, following an argument ‘about money’.
During court proceedings, the court heard Borce was ‘focused’ on the portrayal of his financial situation when he spoke to two journalists.
He insisted to one reporter that the couple were not ‘dogged by debt’ and that their Watergardens shopping centre store was profitable.
Ristevski told the court that Karen’s importance to the Bella Bleu business ‘was a motive for the accused not to kill her’.
‘She was in effect the “heartbeat” of the “Bella Bleu” clothing business which they operated,’ the court was told.
Contacted for comment, Ristevski’s lawyer Sam Norton said the credit card lawsuit was ‘wholly irrelevant’ to Borce’s criminal proceedings and Karen’s death.
Mr Norton said: ‘The police engaged a forensic accountant and that this material which you seek is wholly irrelevant to Mr Ristevski’s criminal proceedings and the death of Karen Ristevski.’
The sentencing judge slammed Ristevski for his ‘rank deceit’ – which included acting as pallbearer at his wife’s March 2017 funeral
Mr Norton said his firm had represented Ristevski for an extended period of time. But ‘at no time’ was it told about the litigation or ‘anything connected to it.’
Ristevski is serving a nine year jail sentence, with a six year non parole period. Prosecutors are appealing, saying the sentence was ‘manifestly inadequate’.
The sentencing judge condemning his ‘rank deceit’ in denying his role for 20 months.
The judge said he had ‘finally accepted responsibility for killing Karen, you have not revealed how or why you killed your wife.’
The mystery continues.
KAREN RISTEVSKI: HOW THE MYSTERY UNFOLDED
June 29, 2016
* Karen Ristevski last seen at her Melbourne home in Avondale Heights
* Her mobile phone pings off a tower in the Macedon Ranges
* A car similar to her black Mercedes SLK coupe spotted by CCTV cameras near Diggers Rest railway station
December 19, 2016
* Police search grassland, waterways, creeks and farms
February 20, 2017
* Karen Ristevski’s body found at Mount Macedon Regional Park
A hiker stumbled upon Karen’s body between two logs in the Mount Macedon National Park on February 20, 2017
March 6, 2017
* Funeral service held with husband Borce Ristevski a pallbearer, while daughter Sarah leads the procession
August 31, 2017
* Police recreate the journey of Ms Ristevski on the day she went missing in a black Mercedes, identical to hers
December 13, 2017
* Borce Ristevski charged with murder and faces court where a lawyer indicates a not-guilty plea. He is remanded in custody
April 18, 2018
* Ristevski returns to court where it’s revealed detectives tapped phone calls and planted listening devices as they investigated the alleged killing, compiling a 22,000-page evidence brief
* Ristevski is granted state-funded legal aid as he fights the allegations
Locked up: Borce Ristevski
March 12, 2019
* Prosecutors suffer a major setback.
A Supreme Court judge rules evidence about Ristevski’s conduct after Karen’s death could not be used as evidence of he had alleged ‘murderous intent’
March 13, 2019
* Ristevski’s charge is downgraded and he pleads guilty to Karen’s manslaughter death
April 18, 2019
* Ristevski is sentenced to a nine year jail term, with a six year non-parole period
May 13, 2019
* Prosecutors launch bid to increase Ristevski’s jail term, labeling his sentence ‘manifestly inadequate’.
The case heard by the Court of Appeal in November
Source: AAP, Daily Mail Australia