Building industry watchdog cancels licence of tradie who admitted to sex assaults

The Queensland building industry regulator has buckled to pressure and cancelled the licence of a Townsville tradie who pleaded guilty to assaulting women in their homes while doing renovations.

Under pressure from negative publicity, Queensland’s building industry watchdog has finally cancelled the licence of a Townsville tradie who admitted to multiple sexual assaults.

The belated move by the Queensland Building and Construction Commission on Thursday came two weeks after Public Works Minister Mick de Brenni vowed swift action against William Emanuel Camilleri and his company WEC Constructions.

De Brenni scrambled after The Courier Mail revealed that Camilleri was still free to operate without any restrictions despite pleading guilty to eight counts of sexual assault in early August.

He was given a 12-month sentence, suspended for three years. The Townsville District Court heard that he had assaulted five women over a three-year period to March 2019 while doing renovation work in their homes.

William Emanuel Camilleri

Opposition housing minister Tim Mander accused the government on Friday of taking action only after this newspaper exposed the regulatory bungle.

“Why does it take the media spotlight for this government to act on its failures?’’ Mander asked.

“Mick de Brenni is more worried about what it looks like rather than the protection of homeowners.’’

A spokesman for de Brenni declined to comment Friday, while Camilleri did not return a call. His WEC website has been taken down.

A QBCC spokesman said the regulator was legally obliged to allow Camilleri 21 days to respond to the proposed cancellation but he did not reveal why this move had taken so long to initiate.

“Following the expiry of this period, on 7 October, the QBCC cancelled both Mr Camilleri’s licence and the licence of the company of which Mr Camilleri is a director,’’ he said.

“The QBCC decided that Mr Camilleri is not a fit and proper person to hold a contractor’s licence having regard to his conviction for an indictable offence.’’