True story of Australian woman Melissa Caddick who suddenly vanished in 2020
TV fans might be left in disbelief over the facts of a shocking new drama about true crime swindler Melissa Craddick.
ITV are airing a three-part drama titled Vanishing Act - which stars 52-year-old Australian Kath & Kim actress Kate Atkinson as the real-life 49-year-old criminal Melissa. The miniseries also stars Home and Away actress Sophie Bloom and Scottish-born Australian actor Colin Friels and the story tells an unbelievable story of embezzlement, betrayal and a disappearance.
True crime fans will get a kick out of the series as the events told on screen are real - although Kate’s version of Melissa is shown as an unreliable narrator, tapping into the real world fact that she lied her way to disaster. While the full truth of her motives will likely never be uncovered - as her remains were found months after she disappeared in 2020.
Of the upcoming drama, an official synopsis for the three-parter states: “Australian financial adviser Melissa Caddick has a harbourside mansion, luxury cars and clothes, and a fiercely loyal clientele who trust her to invest their money. But secretly, she's running a massive Ponzi scheme and ripping off not only clients but friends and family too - including her own parents.
The disappearance of Melissa Caddick gripped Australia in 2020 (Facebook)
Kate Atkinson plays the fraudster in new drama Vanishing Act (ITV)“As she battles to keep the scam going, she has to stay a step ahead of legal authorities, as well as a local criminal heavyweight.” While the show is also described as a “fact based drama” - rather than a docuseries.
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Melissa’s real life began in April 1971 when she was born in a suburb of Sydney, Australia. Her early career began after she enrolled in a secretarial and business administration course at Patrick's College Australia in Sydney - but her CV was said to include fake qualifications including a degree from the University of Technology in the Aussie city.
The Sydney based institution issued a statement confirming that the budding criminal had never attended the University, telling the Sydney Morning Herald they had: "no record of completion of a Graduate Diploma in Finance or Masters of Business in Finance – or indeed any qualification – under the name of Melissa Caddick or Melissa Grimley [her maiden name].”
The three part drama will air on ITV on Monday 17, Tuesday 18 and Wednesday 19 December 2023 at 9pm (ITV)In the late 1990s, Melissa worked for a boutique investment bank - but came under pressure when it was revealed she had been forging her boss’s signature to steal $2,000 AUS (£1,050 - which would be worth 2,100 in 2023). Melissa was offered the chance to leave the job immediately or the company would inform the police - and she reportedly left her position voluntarily.
She then went on to work for Wise Financial Services - a subsidiary of Dutch banking company ING - where she bought shares in the company using loans. After excelling in her job, she was praised by the trade magazine Independent Financial Advisor. However, she ran into fresh difficulties at work when her bosses refused to allow her recommend property and share buying advice to her clients as this would contravene regulatory compliance rules.
Friends grew suspicious of Melissa when she suddenly started making extravagant purchases with many questioning how she could afford a lavish lifestyle. She contradicted her own stories, telling some she had won money and others that she received pay outs from court cases.
Between October 2012 and November 2020 it is believed she embezzled $30 million AUS (£15 million) as she took money from clients, family and friends and deposited it into thirty-seven bank accounts. She splashed the cash on two homes, luxury cars, designer clothing, artwork and jewellery.
To cover her tracks, Melissa told those she took money from that she had invested into a fake portfolio which she showed faked account numbers to her investors in an attempt to avert suspicion. This amounted to a Ponzi scheme - a type of fraud when someone takes money from one investor, for false reasons, and then cons more people so they can present quick returns to the first investor by giving them some money taken from future investors.
Melissa’s financial actions soon drew the attention of the Australian Securities and Investments Commission - a government body that investigates fraud. On 12 November 2020, the morning after ASIC agents and the Australian Federal Police raided her home in Dover Heights, Sydney, Melissa disappeared.
Three months later, on 21 February 2021, human remains washed up on Bournda Beach in New South Wales - with DNA testing later confirming that they were the remains of Melissa. While some believe she could have survived losing a foot - with a criminologist named Dr Xanthe Mallett telling authorities he believed she could have easily survived losing her limb, and other theories suggesting she is being hidden by an accomplice - Melissa was declared dead by authorities in December 2022.
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