Travis Barnard: Bizarre backstory of man who raided girlfriend’s superannuation hours after her death

The bizarre background of a heartless boyfriend jailed for raiding his girlfriend’s superannuation fund — just hours after she died — includes a blaze, a break-in and a boast that he could make women’s dreams come true. Last week, the family of Kim Heptinstall spoke of their nightmare as Travis Barnard was handed a near four-year jail term for using her phone to amend details of her superannuation fund on July 20, 2019, to benefit him. That was the same day Ms Heptinstall died, having had surgery earlier the same week. It was around 8am when Barnard called an ambulance after finding his partner dead. It was just before 3pm on the same day when he logged-in to her superannuation app and made himself a beneficiary of the $400,00 fund. And despite Barnard’s insistence he was entitled to the money as a de facto — a claim he is maintaining in a civil case against Ms Heptinstall’s family — he was prosecuted under Commonwealth law, convicted and jailed. During the sentencing hearing, Judge David MacLean was scathing in his description of Barnard, labelling him “glib”, “superficial”, selfish, “cold-hearted” and “calculated”. “(Your offending was) opportunistic and predatory, and was designed to enrich yourself to take advantage of Ms Heptinstall’s estate,” Judge MacLean said. “A cold-hearted and calculated breach of trust — and in no way clouded by, or informed by, any sense of grief. You were motivated by greed and deliberately decided to act dishonestly.” Speaking ahead of the sentencing, Barnard referred to the “other Travis” or “bad Travis” who was responsible for the offending — and he did not remember doing it. That explanation was the same one he gave in 2015 — when Barnard was convicted of arson, after burning his own house down. In July 2014, police put out an appeal about an alleged break-in in Belmont, after being told the “residence had been broken into and that a fire had been started in one of the rooms”. “The occupant of the house was able to escape before the fire caused significant damage to the residence,” the appeal stated. That occupant was Barnard. And his father posted online that his son had lost everything, but would “rebuild his life from the bottom up”. When questioned by police about the blaze, Barnard told them a startling story — that two masked men had forced their way into the house, held him down, stolen his keys and then deliberately started the fire. Days later, he admitted that was a lie, told because he didn’t want to get into trouble — and the fire had been sparked by accident while he was asleep. But investigations suggested otherwise, and when confronted with the evidence — that a combination of a lounge suite, a cigarette lighter and a bottle of bourbon has caused the damage — Barnard claimed “another person inside of you took over and started the fire”. Judge John Chaney said given the seriousness of the fire and that lies which followed, 18 months prison was the only option. But he suspended that sentence. “You have the opportunity now to address the issues which bring you here and hopefully do that successfully,” the judge said. It was not that successful. In February 2018, after being sacked by a car rental business in Redcliffe, Barnard waited until past 2.30am then went back to his old workplace with his keys in his hand and revenge on his mind. “He entered, walked into the CCTV room and switched off the power to the CCTV, disabling it in the process,” Perth Magistrates Court was told. Whilst inside he logged on to the computers and permanently deleted multiple programs “Deleting this program stopped the branch running for several hours the following day and impacted business severely,” the court was told. “He attended Belmont police station where he made full admissions to the charge and in explanation stated: ‘I wanted them to suffer like I suffered’.” Magistrate Robert Young concluded the actions were “done out of pure spite”. “I did it, but it didn’t satisfy me one little bit after it,” Barnard said at the time. “I thought it would have, but it didn’t.” A 12-month community order was handed to Barnard in March 2018. In November of that year, despite his relationship with Ms Heptinstall, he posted an introduction to an online singles page. In May 2019, he posted online advertisements for his services as an escort, telling prospective clients: “I am an open book — you tell me what you want and you won’t be disappointed.” In July that year, on the day of Ms Heptinstall’s death, Barnard transferred thousands of dollars out of her bank accounts, and then made himself the non-binding beneficiary of her superannuation. And that night, he did not go to Ms Heptinstall’s wake. Documents show he asked another woman out for drink. “The fictional practice of a made-up personality allows you to ascribe blame for your deliberate conduct to a phantom — someone who doesn’t exist,” Judge MacLean said. “This creation of the imaginary Travis sits inconsistently with any type of insight or acceptance of responsibility. “And your calculated, selfish dishonesty demonstrates that you are a high risk of dishonestly offending against someone again should the opportunity present.” He will be eligible for parole in 23 months.