Melbourne based Trojan Press Bookprinters has gone into liquidation, with local printers saying owner Lazarus Gymnopoulos has left them in debt.

Trojan Press Bookprinting was affiliated with Thomastown business Trojan Print in the past, but the two separated in 2013 when owner Fab Picciani sold the book business to Frank Todisco. The business was then eventually inherited by Gymnopoulos, who according to Melbourne printers, acted as a print broker, outsourcing all of the firm’s work.

Fab Picciani, owner of Trojan Print says, “I had known him for a while. We did a couple of big jobs for him and he did not pay us for it. He ripped us off, he owes us around $60,000.

“We were completely separate companies. It was a one man show, he outsourced all of his work.

“He has ripped off a lot of companies including Marvel Bookbinding, Ambulance Victoria and RMIT.

“Around five or six years ago, our two companies were related. I sold Trojan Press to Frank Todisco and he was running it for a little while before he sold it off. Lazarus took over around two years ago and kept the Trojan name.

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“I worked with him in good faith, did some work for him. Then we did the big jobs and he never paid us back. We have not heard from him since last year.

“He had a book printed with a major trade printer and he did not pay them, the books ended up going to the customer late and he sold them at cost price to them.”

Wayne Eastaugh, managing director for Marvel Bookbinding and Print Finishing says, “He actually did not own any equipment, he was more of a broker but he was fairly prominent with publishers and book printing.

“He used to work within the old Mercedes Waratah building with the Todiscos, he did not work them, just used the office space. Eventually when they were bought by Moody and the old Docklands, he moved out and started working from home.

“We did work for him and he did not pay. He owed us around $36,000. He just disappeared and would not talk to you. There was promise after promise after promise but nothing happened. We cut him off around a year ago.

“It got to a point where there was a limit in where he could get his books done, because he had already hurt so many printers. It was mostly hard bound work.

[Related: Graphic Impressions goes under]

“There was a job he tried to do through Trojan Print and us where he had taken a $10,000-15,000 deposit from Ambulance Victoria and no one would do it so he could not get the job done and they did not get their deposit back.

The liquidators appointed for Trojan Press are Daniel Juratowitch and Glenn Spooner of Cor Cordis Chartered Accountants.

Eastaugh says another well-known inner Melbourne high quality offset and digital printer was thought to have also been ripped off by Gymnopoulos.

Eastaugh says, “He started off as a delivery driver at a print company and he got into sales. I knew him about 20 years ago when he was a truck driver.”

Picciani says, “He has been in the industry for a long time and was well liked, but he has now hurt a lot of printers. I know I am not going to get my money back.”

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