Sharpe Services collapse leaves employees, creditors chasing $6m in unpaid debts

The devastating trail of debts left by failed electrical firm Sharpe Services has been revealed, with employees and creditors left chasing more than $6m.

Employees and creditors of failed solar and electrical company Sharpe Services have been left chasing more than $6m, liquidators have revealed.

According to the latest estimates, close to 30 employees are owed nearly $1m, including more than $437,000 in unpaid super, while almost 90 unsecured creditors have been left $3.9m out of pocket.

Battery manufacturers Sonnen and Tesla are among the largest creditors, owed about $876,000 and $145,000 respectively, and the Australian Tax Office is owed $1.5m.

ANZ is the largest secured creditor, owed more than $318,000.

Any chance of creditors recovering the amounts owed to them appears extremely slim, with estimates from the company’s director David Sharpe suggesting the company had less than $122,000 worth of assets at the time of its collapse.

David Sharpe of Sharpe Services

Sharpe Services called in liquidator Daniel Lopresti of Clifton Hall last month to wind up the company’s affairs more than 40 years of trade.

However while the company has stopped trading, phone calls to the Sharpe Services contact number are still being answered, and the company’s website currently redirects to a new website for O’Brien Electrical & Energy Solutions – part of the national O’Brien electrical, plumbing and glazing network.

Mr Lopresti and Mr Sharpe have been contacted to provide further details about the relationship between Sharpe Services and O’Brien.

At the time liquidators were appointed to wind up his company, Mr Sharpe blamed cuts to the state’s home-battery scheme and the economic fallout from Covid for its demise.

The home-battery scheme was launched by the former Liberal state government in 2018, initially offering a subsidy of up to $6000 towards the cost of a home-battery system.

Over the past two years the subsidy has been wound back to $2000, and was killed off entirely in the Labor government’s first budget earlier this year, due to lower-than-expected take-up from homeowners.

Sharpe Services had been one of the state’s longest-running electrical, solar and battery companies, recently employing close to 60 technicians and other staff, before cutting that figure to 25 prior to the company’s collapse.

Last year competing trades firm Metropolitan Plumbing and Metropolitan Electrical initiated legal proceedings against Sharpe Services over claims of trademark infringement.

However Mr Sharpe said the matter was dropped before reaching the courts, and had no impact on the company’s deteriorating financial position.