‘This is out of control’: The 750 tradies who bought fake qualifications from criminals
Building defects cost Sydney homeowners and taxpayers $700m a year. Some of the problem begins with who is engaged to do the work.
By Harriet Alexander and Max Maddison
Qualifications for some tradespeople have been sold by organised crime figures.
Hundreds of tradesmen who bought forged qualifications from a criminal syndicate are working on NSW building sites in what is believed to be the tip of the iceberg for an industry plagued by vocational training fraud.
The Herald’s Shoddy Sydney series can reveal that Building Commission NSW last April identified more than 750 individuals who had been issued with licences on the basis of fake qualifications bought from an organised crime group impersonating genuine training providers.
But nearly a year later, the commission has cancelled only 63 fraudulent-licence holders categorised as “high risk”, and notified a further 193 of its intention to cancel, while hundreds of underqualified tradesmen continue to operate.
The commission is also yet to cancel the construction licences of about 500 NSW tradies who attained their qualifications from DSA Ventures, which had its registration terminated by the national vocational education regulator in December due to a “grossly inadequate” assessment model.
Australian Skills Quality Authority (AQSA) annulled the qualifications issued by DSA Ventures when it cancelled the college’s registration, stating that all former students had been contacted and none had demonstrated they had been given the necessary training or assessment.
However, it is up to the commission to cancel the licences obtained with those qualifications. A spokesperson said they were being assessed on a “case-by-case basis” and regulatory action would be taken if any licence holders were found to have used invalid qualifications.
The proliferation of unqualified workers in the construction sector has exposed vulnerabilities in how tradesmen are licensed in NSW, and comes amid concern among home owners about the prevalence of defects in buildings which cost the state $700 million a year.
Unqualified or underqualified tradesmen are often not discovered until consumers report their poor workmanship to regulators.
Former building commissioner David Chandler said the number of dodgy qualifications would easily be in the thousands, adding figures in the building industry had warned him about the issue for a decade.
“Serious people were coming up to me and saying, ‘Dave, this is out of control’,” he said.
“I don’t want to name the association, but they told me they had surveyed 50 per cent of their members who said they had gone out and bought their qualifications.”
He recalled turning up to building sites and seeing hordes of tradies piling into cars and taking off, which he believed was a conspicuous effort to avoid their illegitimate qualifications being discovered.
Redacted ministerial briefing notes released under freedom of information laws indicate the torrent of fraudulent licence holders flowing into the sector has been a closely guarded secret within the government.
Building Commission NSW commenced its investigation into qualification forgeries after NSW Police tipped off the organisation in December 2023 to a single individual believed to be producing and selling forged qualifications.
An investigative unit codenamed Strike Force Artemis unearthed a broader criminal network selling qualifications for $2500 to $8000 by improperly using the identities of legitimate registered training organisations.
Former Building Commissioner David Chandler said the number of dodgy qualifications would easily be in the thousands.Credit: Kate Geraghty
Agents of the crime syndicate visited building sites to spruik qualifications without study by recognised prior learning, giving workers the opportunity to branch into different trades, work in more senior roles or operate their own construction companies.
Its members included a former migration agent suspended for visa fraud.
Customers of the syndicate paid money into business bank accounts and received invoices that suggested legitimacy. The building commission and its forerunner Fair Trading NSW issued licences based on the fraudulent qualifications.
Some targeted training organisations were unaware they had been misrepresented, while others appeared to be complicit.
The fraudulent licence holders identified by the commission include builders, carpenters, concreters, painter-decorators, electricians, plumbers and nominated supervisors.
In an interview with the Herald, Building Commissioner James Sherrard said his staff had prepared criminal briefs to bring more than 50 charges against a “number of people”, with more charges expected as the investigation continued.
But he could not estimate the quantum of construction work affected by tradies with bogus qualifications, and acknowledged the prevalence of fake qualifications could extend well beyond the remit of the Building Commission’s investigation.
No owners had yet raised concerns about the quality of work performed by those tradesmen, he said.
“This has probably been going on for an extensive period of time. So those individuals may have worked on quite a large number of premises or none, and it’s just a process.”
Data provided by the Building Commission showed carpenters represented 80 per cent of the licences cancelled. Builders represented one in five of the licences identified by the regulator but still operating.
Building Commission NSW last year developed plans to cancel the licences of the identified workers in tranches beginning in January.
“Building Commission NSW will continue to analyse and mitigate the vulnerabilities in the licensing system that have led to this situation,” the agency told the minister in January. All actions were then scheduled to be finalised by March or April.
Building Commissioner James Sherrard inspects a property at Willoughby.Credit: James Brickwood
To address a skills shortage that has exacerbated the housing supply crisis, the federal government has cut the requirements for workers in some trades to qualify for permanent residency in Australia.
This has fuelled a significant increase in the number of construction courses offered by private training colleges and created incentives for non-genuine providers to churn out bogus qualifications.
Industry sources believe up to one in three licence holders across the state obtained their qualifications fraudulently or through illegitimate claims of 100 per cent recognised prior learning, otherwise known as “cash for quals”.
ASQA said it was actively managing 190 serious matters, relating to 150 providers.
About three-quarters of the cases related to alleged fraud, including bogus qualifications, cash for quals, fabrication of assessments and evidence, ghost colleges, funding fraud and visa risks.
DSA Ventures was among four colleges that had their registration cancelled by ASQA late last year, with the others providing qualifications in disability and early childhood care.
ASQA issued a public statement in January explaining that it had taken urgent action to cancel qualifications in the care and construction industries “because of the potential safety risks”.
“These providers were typically purporting to deliver on the basis of a model of ‘Recognition of Prior Learning’ (RPL) that was grossly inadequate,” the statement said.
Sherrard said he had concerns about 100 per cent recognised prior learning, and that a competency-based assessment should be “the minimum standard” to support any qualification.
“I don’t think that’s an unreasonable belt and braces approach,” Sherrard said.
Frontier Institute of Technology chief executive Lupa Borah, who learnt the name of her college had been used to produce fake qualifications during a routine compliance check by NSW Fair Trading in 2023, said the costs to her business were financial and reputational.
“As a small business with a 22-year history, we’re shocked to be facing such a large-scale scam,” Borah said.
“I’m also mindful of the pain the victims are experiencing, but unfortunately, the responsibility often lies with the buyer to be vigilant. Scammers continue to exploit vulnerable individuals.”
Tomorrow: When things go wrong – and it’s kept secret
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