‘You corrupt stain of a human’: Airbnb owner faces court over text message
The owner of an award-winning Airbnb property has appeared before Ballarat Magistrates’ Court after accusing a Hepburn Shire councillor of corruption in a text message.
David Penman, owner of the property Clifftop at Hepburn, was issued with two warning letters from lawyers acting for the council over potentially defamatory comments, following a protracted and increasingly bitter planning dispute in which he was denied planning approval for several Mongolian tents known as yurts.
Airbnb property owner David Penman in 2020.Credit: Simon Schluter
Police from Creswick also applied for a personal safety intervention order on behalf of Hepburn councillor Don Henderson, whom Penman accused of corruption in a May 25 text message.
“Go ahead and sue me Don, you corrupt stain of a human...can’t wait to do discovery,” Penman’s text said.
Penman faced court on July 28, but the police application for the intervention order was not enforced.
Penman is no stranger to a courtroom, or defamation proceedings. He pleaded guilty in Moorabbin Magistrates’ Court in May last year to harassing a former guest after she rated his luxury accommodation as “Just OK”.
In an expletive-laden message left on the woman’s answering machine on May 1, 2021, Penman said: “You obviously didn’t do your research about the defamation case on Google ... don’t bother removing your review, don’t bother offering to settle. I’ll see you in f---ing court, you better have a lot of money.”
In February 2022, he was placed on a diversion order, which spared him any criminal record, in Melbourne Magistrates’ Court, after admitting to sending a barrage of threatening messages to another former guest in June 2021.
Penman has launched Federal Court action against internet giants Google and TripAdvisor in a bid to identify several other guests who left allegedly defamatory reviews of his business.
According to court documents, the property owner is demanding the popular review websites hand over “subscriber information for accounts associated with the defamatory posts” allegedly made about Penman or his business.
‘Go ahead and sue me Don, you corrupt stain of a human...can’t wait to do discovery.’
David Penman’s text message to Hepburn Shire councillor Don Henderson
Penman’s luxury villas, which charge guests up to $699 per night, have won a swag of travel, hospitality and architectural accolades, including the nation’s best holiday home in 2020, according to the business’s Airbnb page.
His latest legal stoush was sparked by a Hepburn Shire Council decision to deny planning approval for “glamping” accommodation at another Hepburn property that was to include several Mongolian yurts.
He has appealed to the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal, and has demanded Premier Daniel Andrews, the Victorian Ombudsman and the state’s corruption watchdog intervene.
He accuses the council of using ratepayers’ funds to defend the private legal interests of councillors.
David Penman’s Airbnb property, Clifftop at Hepburn.
“This is illegal and warrants immediate investigation and prosecution,” says a letter sent by Penman on July 7 to Andrews, the Ombudsman and the Independent Broad-based Anti-corruption Commission.
“Councillor Henderson is guilty of egregious misconduct in his work and also in his attempts to silence my criticisms of his professional misconduct. He recently leaned on his police mate at Creswick to file for an intervention order on the basis that he felt threatened,” Penman wrote.
Henderson declined to comment.
Mayor Brian Hood defended the council’s handling of the dispute.
“Councillors, along with council management have a shared responsibility to provide a safe workplace. Council officers should not be exposed to unreasonable behaviour. That is not acceptable,” Hood said.
“Councillors understand the cut and thrust of their roles, but just like council officers, there is a line.”
Penman did not respond to requests for comment from The Sunday Age.
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