By Megan Gorrey
When the opportunity arose for Ivan Webb to purchase the house he rented in Dubbo in central-western NSW, he was anxious to secure the property that had been the family residence for many years.
But Webb, who primarily worked as a steel installation subcontractor, and his wife couldn’t afford the roughly $400,000 house “unless we put all our super[annuation] and everything like that in”.
Ivan Webb gives evidence at ICAC on Wednesday. He is not accused of wrongdoing.Credit: ICAC
“[We] were looking for finance anywhere we could get it,” a corruption inquiry heard on Wednesday.
Webb later got a message from his son, Benjamin Webb, who at the time managed Canterbury-Bankstown Council’s works and project unit, and is currently at the centre of a corruption probe.
“I will work out what we can do,” Benjamin texted his father in early 2022.
The NSW Independent Commission Against Corruption’s Operation Mantis is investigating whether Benjamin Webb and former council contractor Pietro Cossu partially or dishonestly exercised their official functions by using or attempting to use a company, PMLV Invest and Const Pty Ltd, for recruitment subcontractor services without disclosing their financial interest in the company.
A public inquiry, which started on Monday, has heard Webb and Cossu supplied about 26 subcontractors to work on council projects via two recruitment agencies, Randstad and Spinifex Recruiting, but paid them significantly less than they billed the council between 2020 and 2022.
The agencies paid PMLV more than $7 million for the subcontractors, but PMLV paid the workers only about $2.6 million, netting the duo’s company a potential profit of about $4 million.
Cossu was listed as PMLV’s director and sole shareholder until mid-2023, when Ivan Webb became the company’s director and shareholder. Ivan Webb is not accused of any wrongdoing.
On Wednesday, Webb told the inquiry his son, who had been “looking for options” to enable his parents to buy the Dubbo home, later informed him he had found a way to purchase the property.
“[Benjamin] just said that he got some finance, and we were going to move ahead,” Webb said.
He emailed his father, telling him to request the paperwork, and wrote: “I’m not sure of the company name yet, it will be a shelf company so just ask for a draft contract.”
Webb later learned Cossu was financing the purchase of the house. Asked who had paid the deposit for the property, Webb told the inquiry: “I imagine Pietro, I don’t know.
“Ben trusted him, and he’d known him for a good while.”
Webb said he and his son, whom the inquiry heard was bankrupt, had first spoken about buying one of Cossu’s companies some time in 2022 as they “were looking to build a family company again”.
The inquiry was told Webb was listed as guarantor for the $500,000 purchase of PMLV, which was to be paid in monthly instalments of $13,000, in late June of 2023.
The inquiry heard Benjamin Webb and Cossu had given Webb a Mitsubishi Triton ute in July 2022.
“Ben and Pietro bought it so I could continue my construction work,” Webb said.
“It possibly could’ve been [paid for by] PMLV. Ben organised that stuff. He said he might be able to arrange something.”
Webb said he had not been aware that Cossu was using PMLV to supply workers to the council via the two recruitment agencies at the time. Asked when he had found out, Webb told the inquiry: “Probably when all this blew up, to be honest,” he said, referring to the watchdog’s investigation.
Under cross-examination, Webb was asked whether Cossu had bought the house as an investment:
“I would imagine so, yes,” Webb said.
Benjamin Webb and Cossu are yet to provide evidence at the inquiry, which is expected to last three weeks.
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