Rushford travelled to Australia in 1993, where he began working with ECC Lighting, in inner Sydney. Whilst he was employed at ECC, Customs officers found out that Rushford had overstayed his temporary visa. Served with a deportation notice, Rushford left Australia, travelling to New Zealand, via Fiji, and returned with a new passport and new identity as Michael Loch McGurk, altering his birth date from 1958 to 1964.
