David Hurst: Rogue dentist transferred $1.5m from his company to offset account after buying Claremont mansion

Rogue dentist David Hurst transferred more than $1.5 million from his company’s bank account to a mortgage offset account in the months after he and his glamorous wife splurged $6.5 million on a Claremont mansion. The money included patient pre-payments for dental work that was botched, not completed and in some cases not even started. As revealed by The Sunday Times, more than 130 of Dr Hurst’s patients were left in limbo after his sudden death in December, with $2.36 million of their pre-payments discovered missing in the wake of the tragedy. It has now emerged that Dr Hurst was moving large sums from his company’s trading account into his mortgage offset account in the 10 months leading up to his death. The company was subsequently wound-up. The transfers were revealed in a report to creditors this week by liquidator Bryan Hughes. The large number of patients who shelled out up to $70,000 each for dental implants face little prospect of getting their money back because there is no money left in the company and his deceased estate is bankrupt. Mr Hurst’s share in the luxury Spanish-style home that he and wife Clara Hurst purchased in December 2023 automatically passed on his death to his widow as the surviving joint tenant. The property is undergoing extensive renovations. Mr Hughes said that he had “considered the benefits that Ms Hurst has gained from the substantial payments made to the joint mortgage offset account in the preceding 18 months.” The liquidator is trying to find $10,000 for a “comprehensive legal review” to see if there is any opportunity to take action to recover company funds invested in the property. A source said that Ms Hurst had made equal payments on the mortgage. Mr Hughes reported that 220 unsecured creditors, which included the patients, were owed $3.6 million by the company, which traded as Perth Dental Rooms in Murray Street. The city centre business was sold by the liquidator to a new operator in May but the $1.3 million sale proceeds paid off some of the debts owed to secure creditors only. All that remains is $4700. Mr Hughes said nearly $2.16 million had been overdrawn and was owed back to the company and a more comprehensive legal review – which could cost $10,000 – was needed before any action against Ms Hurst could be contemplated. This was due to the “substantial payments made to the joint mortgage offset account” in the 18 months before Mr Hurst’s death, Mr Hughes said. The West does not suggest that Ms Hurst is guilty of any wrongdoing in relation to her late husband’s transfers of company money to the joint mortgage offset account, just that the transactions are the subject of investigation by the liquidator, Mr Hughes. Ms Hurst, who is also registered dentist, was a director of Hurst Group Pty Ltd from July 2016 until March 2021 when she resigned. She separated from her husband in 2020 but they got back together. She did not rejoin the company, instead concentrating on her own businesses. She owns luxury Cottesloe cosmetic salon Blanc and co-owns The Secret Skincare. Her late husband had been allowed to practice in Australia despite a past conviction for fraud in Wales, where he was born and raised. He stole £15,584 (more than $32,000) from the UK’s National Health Service by forging patient declarations while working as a dentist in Bridgend, near Cardiff, in 2006 and 2007. The West Australian has interviewed scores of Perth patients who complained that shoddy work and cheap materials left them in agony and, in some cases, looking disfigured. In the 18 months before he died, Dr Hurst spent $209,000 of the company’s money on international travel. The company also borrowed $223,320 to purchase a Porsche Cayenne 3. Mr Hughes said he believed that Dr Hurst would have known his excessive drawings from the company would have left it with little working capital. “My investigations indicate that prepayments made by patients were not held in a separate bank account but rather were deposited into the company’s operating account where those funds were mixed with other trading receipts,” he added – and $3m in debt was accrued after it went insolvent. Mr Hughes said that he did not believe Ms Hurst or anyone else suspected the company was insolvent as the business had previously generated millions of dollars of profit. Mr Hughes said Ms Hurst had transferred $424,000 from the company to the mortgage offset account in January and February when she was care-taking the business. “I subsequently wrote to (her) legal representative requesting that these funds be returned to the company immediately. (She) has returned all the (money) to an account under my control,” he reported. Many of the patients are trying to claim against Dr Hurst’s professional indemnity policy but the process has been complicated by the bankruptcy of the deceased estate. Mr Hughes said it appeared Dr Hurst was required under a loan to hold life insurance of at least $1.055 million. Law firm Slater And Gordon is preparing a legal case on behalf of patients, looking at medical negligence claims and potential breaches of Australian Consumer Law. Ms Hurst declined to comment.