Business as usual for owner, retirees out of pocket

Michael Fox speaking to customers at the Brisbane Royal Show. Picture: Kevin Bull Source: Sunday Mail (SA)

Now he is peddling his wares in Queensland.

Michael Fox, the man behind now-defunct Twilight Caravans - which went bust with debts of almost $1 million - failed to front 69 devastated creditors, including his mother who lost $117,000, at a meeting in Adelaide on Friday.

Instead, the Sunday Mail found him trying to sell more caravans at Ekka, Brisbane's Royal Show.

Pensioners Dan and Angie McIlvena - who are owed $52,000 for their traded-in van - were among those creditors left high and dry by the collapse this month of the Blair Athol firm, which boasted the largest undercover caravan showroom in the state.

The Port Broughton couple, who signed up for a new van with Twilight in February, travelled to Adelaide for the "emotional" creditors meeting.

At the same time, Mr Fox was 1600km away selling caravans for another firm.

Mr and Mrs McIlvena were told their traded-in van had been sold in June but Mrs McIlvena said there has been no change of ownership recorded on the registration and the van is still listed for sale on the Twilight Caravans website.

Mrs McIlvena said: "I'm livid - we are supposed to be travelling around Australia at the moment."

"Dan is really depressed - he loves caravanning as I do - but we have lost our van and won't be getting the new one," she said.

Mrs McIlvena, 63, said attending the creditors meeting was like "going to a funeral" and the couple were keen to grieve over their lost dreams and then "get on with our lives".

"People from as far away as Millicent and Port Augusta were at the meeting and Fox should have fronted, instead of being in Queensland."

One commercial creditor, who wished to remain anonymous, said he had not been paid for supplies to Twilight since October.

But Mr Fox, 58, said he had only begun to experience problems meeting payments to his finance company GE Finance in January. "I did everything I could to stay in business," he said. "The finance company cancelled the credit because I was three days late (in payment) on just a few occasions."

With no more credit, orders for new vans placed by Twilight were cancelled, Mr Fox said.

Ron Nicholls is another disgruntled customer of Twilight, who travelled from his Port Pirie home to attend Friday's meeting after a cheque refunding his $5000 deposit on a new caravan bounced on June 22.

In an email to Mr Fox that day, Mr Nicholls asked for alternative arrangements to be made to refund the money.

The next day Mr Fox emailed, saying "the cheque can be cleared now as the funds (from my personal account) have been put in to cover it".

But Mr Nicholls could not do that because dishonoured cheques are destroyed by banks and he emailed

Mr Fox asking for the funds to be transferred electronically to his bank account.

Mr Nicholls is still $5000 out of pocket. "And I'm very angry about the whole experience," he said.

Liquidators were appointed to wind up Twilight Caravans, which was registered in November 2009, with debts of $876,625 last week.

Have you been the victim of a rip-off? Contact David Nankervis at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it