Vertzayias' now-defunct property development outfit Globe Project Group had once sponsored the St George-Illawarra NRL team, and he was reportedly "close" to a number of rugby league identities.

When Vertzayias declared himself bankrupt in 2012, it was believed among creditors owed $60 million was then Dragons' coach Nathan Brown along with George Mimis, the manager of former St George star footballer Mark Gasnier.

Fast forward to 2020 and Vertzayias is facing jail time for swindling more than $1.18 million in payments from a construction company for ongoing work on a "ghost project" that was never approved. He is to be sentenced for dishonestly obtaining $1,185,355.74 from CBC Group, duping them with fake invoices and government documents between November 2014 and December 2015.

Court documents revealed how the 50-year-old was enlisted in March 2012 to make a rezoning application to Hurstville City Council for an industrial site at 3 and 2 The Crescent, Kingsgrove. CBC Group owned the land at number 3, and sought to change the zoning from "light industrial" to "medium density residential".

Vertzayias was solely responsible for managing the planning proposal and organising payment for contractors related to the plans. He claimed payments for work that never existed by forging invoices from companies engaged in the early planning stages.

According to the St George Shire Standard, the proposal itself was twice rejected by then Hurstville City Council, in August and November 2013, with an appeal knocked back by the Sydney East Joint Planning Panel on June 25, 2014. But Vertzayias did not divulge that to CBC and provided fake council minutes and letters purporting to be from the Department of Planning’s deputy secretary to CBC director John Warton when he demanded to see copies after threatening Vertzayias that the money would stop.

Vertzayias also claimed hundreds of thousands of dollars under the letterheads of contractors, including architect firm Allen, Jack + Cottier, traffic consultants Traffix and electrical engineers Shelmerdines, for work they did not do between May and November 2015.

Vertzayias, who has been represented by barrister and former A-League referee Matthew Breeze, has pleaded guilty to charges of using a false document to obtain financial advantage.

CBC Group took Vertzayias to the Supreme Court in April 2016, and on August 18, 2016, he was ordered to repay $810,140.92. He paid back about $100,000 before declaring bankruptcy again.

Vertzayias’ company, Globe Project Group, was established in 1996 and went into receivership in 2009, after having built $505 million worth of developments including luxury apartments the Kilns at Brookvale and Elandra at Bundeena.

Magazine movements

Senior executives from US media giants Hearst and Meredith, respective owners of the global glamour bibles Harper's Bazaar and InStyle, have been busy talking with potential Australian partners to relaunch their titles in coming months, after former publisher Bauer Media's unceremonious axing of the much storied magazines.

PS hears plenty of Zoom calls have been happening behind the scenes with both magazines' US bosses keen to remain a part of the local fashion market, and pressure from international luxury brands to have a broader choice of options beyond Vogue Australia, which is under the control of the Murdoch family's News Corp.

Meanwhile Vogue editor-in-chief Edwina McCann assured PS there was no change in her position at the helm of the magazine, despite being called the magazine's "editor-at-large" in a trade media report this week. The title "editor-at-large" is often a euphemism for "on-the-way-out", which McCann said was "absolutely not the case".

Vegie garden drama

As the battle for Sydney's high-rise pooches rages on at Darlinghurst's swanky Horizon apartment tower, another equally fascinating battle royal has been waged just up the road in the towering Elan complex, but over home-grown veggies and former reality TV stars rather than fur babies.

Former Big Brother contestant and celebrity personal trainer Shannon Cleary was none too pleased when a group of her Elan neighbours – with the initial blessing and funding of the building's strata committee – set up a new veggie garden below her balcony in a neglected space that, for the previous two years, had been a noisy building site office for workmen renovating the tower's facade.

Cleary complained bitterly about the invasion of her privacy – somewhat ironic given she was happy to live in the full exposure of Big Brother's many cameras a few years back – from the green thumbs tending to the plants.

Even a "peace offering" of a platter of home-grown goodies was not enough to win her over and in January the strata committee, which is also dealing with its own pet policies, made it clear they had concerns.

"I was more interested in my seedlings than bothering about what was happening in her apartment," one of the gardeners told PS.

Strata committee member, long term Elan resident and former City of Sydney deputy lord mayor Chris Harris, who had previously proposed installing wind turbines atop the tower to help with power bills, told PS the veggie garden has now been abandoned.

"The strata committee unanimously thought it would be a positive community project on common property in the building, but unfortunately politics and the persistent complaints of one resident made it untenable, so we decided to disband it," he told PS.

Meanwhile PS hears Cleary, who did not respond to PS's queries, has made a name for herself among users of the Elan's gym where she often trains, apparently quite loudly.

Nerida Winter shuts up shop

The former chic magnet of Double Bay has lost a little more of its glister, with confirmation celebrity milliner Nerida Winter, who has created hats for everyone from Kate Waterhouse to Nicole Richie, has had to shut her boutique after 23 years in the once illustrious shopping precinct.

This year's demise of Australia's thoroughbred racing carnival due to the coronavirus pandemic had a huge impact on demand for Winter's designer chapeaus. Winter confirmed to PS the logistics of maintaining her shopfront were no longer economically viable.

"I was a bit sad at first but really, for me, it's all about my private clients and I don't really need the overheads of a shop for that. I'm thinking about doing some fun pop-ups, maybe special evenings where clients can come and see new designs and have a glass of champagne, that sort of thing," Winter said.