Coast to Coast Homes investigation by Consumer and Business Services reveals no wrongdoing

An investigation into the collapse of major home builder Coast to Coast Homes has found no grounds for prosecution.

One of dozens of properties affected by the collapse of Moonta builder Coast to Coast Homes. Picture: Tait Schmaal

An investigation into a South Australian home-building company that collapsed owing millions to suppliers and left customers with defective and unfinished houses has found no grounds for prosecution.

The state’s consumer and business watchdog has revealed it closed an inquiry into Coast to Coast Homes – more than a year after the builder closed its doors in one of the biggest company collapses of its type in the state.

A Consumer and Business Services spokesman said a review of “available evidence” indicated there was no “reas­onable prospect of a prosec­ution”. “Given no action has been taken, we cannot provide any further details,” he said.

“However, should further evidence of possible breaches come to light the matter can be reconsidered.”

The spokesman would not elaborate on the specifics of the investigation.

Moonta builder Coast to Coast Homes went bust in May 2019, owing up to $9.5m and leaving 98 customers in the lurch.

The Advertiser reported in July 2019 that CBS was investigating the company amid criticism the CBS had failed to earlier act on complaints about the builder.

A Coast to Coast Homes’ customer, Jacinta Starick, who had an incomplete property at Mt Barker, claimed at the time that CBS had failed to adequately investigate complaints she raised about the company a year earlier.

“Even though the name of the builder was known, there was no interest by CBS and one was referred to legal services and to take legal action as all matters were considered contractual in nature,” she said in a July 7, 2019, email to CBS commissioner Dini Soulio.

Coast to Coast director Sean Craven declared bankruptcy three months after his company was placed in liquidation.

His son and the company’s general manager, Steven Craven, moved his family to Queensland.

Neither have spoken publicly about the downfall of the company, which Sean Craven started in 2010 and expanded to Adelaide and Port Lincoln.