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Urban Rampage controversy: Inside life of retail entrepreneur and founder Naomi Cuizon Hughes Morris

Entrepreneur Naomi Cuizon Hughes-Morris has enjoyed a privileged life helping people in some of Australia’s most remote communities. But an ASIC order may now put that all under threat. The registered co-owner of the Urban Rampage homewares, furniture and clothing store network has shared pictures of world travel, designer goods and even a photo with rapper Chris Brown in Las Vegas. Her Facebook is filled with images of her in designer clothes, enjoying business class travel and purchasing new cars, including a high-end Toyota four-wheel drive for her adult son. The family’s most recent Christmas portrait showed them sitting on a staircase wearing matching Peter Alexander pyjamas next to a Christmas tree smothered in decorations and surrounded by presents and Gucci shopping bags. However, a recent order from the Australian Securities Investments Commission could spell trouble for Ms Hughes-Morris and the thriving business she runs with her husband. ASIC recently placed an interim stop order on Urban Rampage, specifically on its arrangement of selling goods to customers based on them agreeing to have the money taken from their Centrelink payments. Those deductions are made using the Federal Services Department’s controversial Centrepay that allows businesses to be paid an agreed amount from a person’s fortnightly pension entitlement before it hits the recipient’s account. ASIC said it had received numerous complaints of Urban Rampage customers experiencing financial hardship and presenting for emergency relief after entering into Centrepay arrangements at its stores. “We are concerned such arrangements are causing vulnerable consumers serious financial harm, ,’ ASIC deputy chair Sarah Court said in a statement last week. Broome Circle financial counsellor Veronica Johnson said she had been helping clients for the past eight years who were in Centrepay arrangements they couldn’t afford. “The bottom line is that people are financially stressed in financial hardship because of that,” Ms Johnson said. “And that needs to stop.” Urban Rampage is owned by Queensland registered company Coral Coast Distributors (Cairns) Pty Ltd. Ms Cuizon Hughes-Morris and husband James Hughes-Morris are the directors and shareholders. It has stores in Port Hedland, Broome, Derby, Halls Creek and Kununurra in WA, Nhulunbuy, Katherine, Tennant Creek and Alice Springs in the Northern Territory, and a shop in Mt Isa, Queensland. Urban Rampage defended the system last week, slamming the ASIC order as a “punitive” and “paternalistic” measure that has left its remote community customers with nowhere to shop. It is understood more than 10,000 customers use Urban Rampage and its Centrelink deduction system. The company maintains it provides a service for remote and rural communities who otherwise would have no access to basic supplies, groceries and other essentials. “It is our priority to support all store customers fairly and responsibly. Many of our Indigenous customers are upset and disappointed that this important service has been unilaterally terminated without any consultation with them,” the company said last week. “ASIC has taken a punitive and disproportionate approach with a family-owned and operated business that has never failed a Centrepay audit.” The stop work order comes less than a year after Ms Hughes-Morris celebrated her 50th birthday in an extravagant party wearing a voluminous red ball gown as guests spoke about the entrepreneur. WA Labor Senator Louise Pratt has asked Services Australian and ASIC about the practices of businesses using the Centrepay system at several parliamentary hearings. In a statement, Ms Pratt said she was, “thoroughly relieved that ASIC had taken action and is working with Centrepay to deliver consumer protections”. “Businesses using Centrepay should see the stop order issued to Coral Coast Distributors as a reminder of their obligations to ensure their goods and services are in the best interests of their customers,” she said. “It’s shocking to think that deductions facilitated by the social security system could be used by businesses to rip off consumers and bypass consumer protections. If they don’t meet their obligations, regulators have the power to stop them from trading.” In many towns where Urban Rampage operates it is the only place to buy clothes, shoes, underwear and household goods. It is also where people go for funeral attire, such as black trousers and the deceased’s footy team colours and where you can purchase the plastic flowers and large wreaths that are laid at the burial. In a document recently taken down from Urban Rampage’s website titled Credit Facility TMD (Target Market Determination), the company states it provides “limited credit” on a “case by case basis,” for essentials and “certain desirable consumer goods.” And there is no penalty to a customer if they default on the repayment scheme — except to disallow them for further purchases on credit, the statement says. A former Urban Rampage employee, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said all of the customers she served used Centrepay and they would allow them to purchase hundreds of dollars worth of clothes, household goods and toys through Centrepay. “They would come in and spend most of their pay, $700 or more in that one day when they got paid,” the ex-employee of a remote store said. “I understand the desperation when you are in a (remote place) and there is your grocery store that is crazy expensive, and you can’t even go and buy clothes for your kids without racking up a $300 (bill).” The employee said customers would ask staff how much Centrelink was going to pay them and how much could they spend in the shop.

The West Australian exclusiveUrban Rampage controversy: Inside life of retail entrepreneur and founder Naomi Cuizon Hughes Morris

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Urban Rampage controversy: Inside life of retail entrepreneur and founder Naomi Cuizon Hughes Morris