Savills UK tries to round up Ringers Western product manager Fran Salerno in $1.8m cash transfer blue

A British commercial property group is fighting to recover almost $1.8 million it claims to have mistakenly transferred to a member of a high-profile northern Australia family. Savills UK has been trying to serve WA Supreme Court freezing orders against Fran Salerno, the wife of Ringers Western chief executive James “Hawkeye” Salerno and a product manager with the clothing and apparel group. Savills UK first gained the freezing orders against Ms Salerno on February 14 after launching a legal action claiming it transferred £904,680.23 to her by mistake on, or about, January 15. The freezing orders prevent Ms Salerno from disposing of her Australian assets up to an unencumbered value of $1.77m, the Australian dollar equivalent of the pounds when transferred. It is not known if there is any prior relationship between Savills UK and Ms Salerno, who came to Australia from England on holiday about 12 years ago and met Mr Salerno in Kununurra. She began living in an alternative lifestyle community then being run in Kununurra by Mr Salerno’s father James “Taipan” Salerno, a self-styled social researcher who claimed to be creating the ideal human environment. The family hosted Prince Harry on a visit to Australia 10 years ago. Their community left Kununurra about five year ago and moved to the Gold Coast hinterland. Justice Matthew Howard originally required Savills UK to serve the freezing orders on Ms Salerno in the Clagiraba property where they believed she was living last month. But Justice Howard last week gave Savills UK permission to serve the orders by post and to Ms Salerno’s Facebook page, her WhatsApp phone number and two Gmail addresses believed to be linked to her. Affidavits supporting the freezing orders and substituted service orders have not been released by the court, and Savills UK would not discuss the legal action or whether it had any relationship with Ms Salerno or her family. The West Australian had been unable to contact Ms Salerno. In its WA Supreme Court writ, Savills UK seeks restitution of the “value of the mistaken payment” but does not provide a final claim figure in Australian dollars. With recent volatility in currency markets, £904,680 converted to upwards of $1.86m this week.