The trucking company found responsible for the deaths of four police officers on the Eastern Freeway will never pay its record $2.31 million fine after the business was declared insolvent despite previously earning millions of dollars in profit.
Connect Logistics was the operator of a truck that slammed into two police cars in the emergency lane after they pulled over a Porsche in Kew on April 22, 2020, killing Leading Senior Constable Lynette Taylor, Senior Constable Kevin King and constables Glen Humphris and Josh Prestney.
Senior Constable Kevin King (left), Constable Josh Prestney, Leading Senior Constable Lynette Taylor and Constable Glen Humphris were killed on the Eastern Freeway in 2020.Credit: Victoria Police
Compounding the tragedy was the conduct of the Porsche’s owner, Richard Pusey, who filmed the dead and dying officers on the side of the road.
The truck driver, supervisor, operations manager and owner of Connect Logistics all faced charges in various jurisdictions for their own culpability in the tragedy after it was revealed truckie Mohinder Singh was high on drugs and fatigued, and the trucking company had a pattern of violating safety laws.
Singh was jailed for 18½ years, his supervisor Simiona Tuteru was sentenced to a three-year community corrections order, Connect Logistics national operations manager Cris Large was jailed for three years but his case was thrown out on appeal, and company owner and director Corey Matthews was fined $22,000.
In November 2023, Connect Logistics was fined $2.31 million and prohibited from conducting any transport activities for one year.
“This outcome, along with the record $22,000 fine and supervisory order handed to the company’s managing director, sends a strong message to those taking the deadly risk of breaching their primary duty,” National Heavy Vehicle Regulator director of prosecutions Belinda Hughes said at the time.
But the record $2.31 million penalty will never be paid after Matthews shut down Connect Logistics in late 2022 and then put the company into voluntary liquidation about one month after the fine was issued.
The failure to pay comes despite a report filed by the liquidator showing Connect Logistics made multimillion-dollar profits in the years after its truck hit and killed the four officers.
This included posting profits of $3.5 million in 2021, $1.4 million in 2022 and $117,000 in 2023.
Liquidator Worrells has reported the company is no longer required to pay the fine due to insolvency regulations.
“Penalties or fines imposed by a court in respect of an offence against a law are not admissible to proof against an insolvent company and accordingly, Revenue NSW are unable to claim as a creditor of the company,” Worrells said in a report.
At the time of the liquidation, Connects Logistics had no cash or assets left on its books.
The company owes more than $751,000 to its insurance company, which revoked its policy coverage in April 2023 and helped trigger the company’s insolvency.
Matthews could not be reached for comment. Worrells did not respond to a request for comment.
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