Stuart Cherry, Ultra Residential Pty Ltd plead guilty to botched builds

A man who left one woman hundreds of thousands of dollars out of pocket after a diabolic Torquay build has pleaded guilty to four catastrophic failures.

One of the failed projects Stuart Cherry is accused of. Photo: Courtesy ABC

A dodgy builder who left one woman hundreds of thousands of dollars out of pocket has been slapped with a $20,000 fine after pleading guilty to four separate charges.

Stuart Cherry fronted the Geelong Magistrates Court on Friday and admitted to shocking failures in relation to a build on Spring Valley Drive in Torquay.

Court documents showed Mr Cherry, as part of his Ultra Residential Pty Ltd company, did not construct bored piers as per the approved engineering, and they were never passed as compliant during the inspection stage of the build.

He also did not contact the building surveyor in relation to the mandatory frame inspection of the subfloor, and he failed to halt works on completion of a mandatory notification stage when directed to do so by the relevant building surveyor.

The offending occurred between March – October in 2022.

The failures resulted in the “financial decimation” of the victims who the court heard had lost “hundreds of thousands of dollars”.

It’s alleged he packed up and left the build and never returned.

It was later found none of the work completed during the four months of construction was certified.

“Victims are still under a contract with him … and are stuck between a rock and a hard place,” the prosecution told the court.

Mr Cherry also pleaded guilty to falsely implying he was a registered building practitioner at a site in Morley Crescent in Highton between September 2020 and July 2022.

Prior to his court appearance, the only action taken against Mr Cherry was having his licence suspended in 2022 by the state’s building authority for not paying his registration fees.

He promised to never return to the building industry.

“He will never go back to it,” his defence barrister said.

The court heard criminal proceedings had led to depression and anxiety for Mr Cherry.

“He has already suffered quite significant reputational damage,” she said.

Mr Cherry’s lawyer told the court he thought he had done everything right but admits he failed to manage his responsibilities and “the buck stops with him.”

“The wheels fell off,” she said.

The magistrate told the court Mr Cherry ought to have known what the process was.

“Builders, whether you are a first time builder or thousands time builder, your clients are putting faith and significant amounts of money for whatever they have a contract for,” she said.

She imposed an aggregate fine to the company of $10,000 and an aggregate fine to Mr Cherry of $10,000

No conviction was recorded.

Originally published as Stuart Cherry, Ultra Residential Pty Ltd plead guilty to botched builds