On a quiet tree-lined street, a man wheels his bins out to the curb in a seemingly ordinary scene — except for one thing.

The man is Peter Cowell, who vanished after proclaiming himself an admiral seeking donations for an international search-and-rescue scheme called IntSAR.

He even had a meeting with the now-Prime Minister of Fiji, but IntSAR turned out to be "bogus" and spectacularly imploded last year.

Mr Cowell's whereabouts have been unknown since July 2024, when he posted a video of himself from Bangkok, Thailand.

The ABC has tracked him down to the Perth suburb of Thornlie, where he had swapped his fanciful admiral's uniform for a checked shirt and white sneakers. Loading...

"Are you indeed an admiral in the navy?" the ABC asked him.

Mr Cowell said: "No".

When pressed ab

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