QBCC responds to Miles Electrical liquidation

The hillside home owned by the family behind a Fraser Coast company’s high-profile liquidation has sold as the construction watchdog is quizzed on the fallout.

A Fraser Coast electrical company owes $2.3million to creditors.

The directors of collapsed Fraser Coast business Miles Electrical face regulatory action that could see them banned from starting a new business in the building industry for three years.

The state’s regulatory building body Queensland Building and Construction Commission (QBCC) suspended the Hervey Bay electrical company’s licence on November 5 for failing to pay an invoice.

The company, that had most recently worked on the $60 million Maryborough munitions plant, had stopped trading in mid-September weeks before they entered creditor’s voluntary liquidation owing $2.3 million.

“Now that Miles Electrical is in liquidation, the QBCC has begun appropriate exclusion action against relevant individuals associated with the company,” a QBCC spokesperson said.

The spokesperson said if an individual was excluded, they were unable to hold a QBCC contractor, nominee supervisor or site supervisor’s licence or be a director, secretary or influential person for a QBCC-licensed company for three years.

The company, owned by Wayne and Rebecca Miles, went into liquidation collectively owing more than 50 creditors $2.3m, including owing Haymans Electrical $1,281,972, the majority of which was accumulated through the Hervey Bay store.

The couple’s Hervey Bay property, on Jacobsen’s Outlook, Urraween, was under contract as of October 7, according to CoreLogic RP data.

However, the property – a five-bedroom house on a 1000 sqm block, was advertised for sale for offers over $795 000 by Ray White Hervey Bay on November 19.

According to Realestate.com, the property has sold as of December 1.

It is unclear if any funds from the will go towards clearing debts to creditors.

Ray White Hervey Bay declined to comment.

Liquidator Paul Nogueira, of Worrells Solvency and Forensic Accountants, said it was too early to tell if creditors would recoup money owed to them.

An initial assessment of Miles Electrical included determining if the company was owed money from an undetermined party following the Maryborough Munitions factory build, that could be up to $2m, he said.

An NIOA spokesman said RNM had fulfilled its contractual obligations in relations to the factory’s construction and the contractual arrangement for the building was with Badge Constructions.

Badge Constructions claimed they fulfilled their contractual obligations with Miles Electrical in relation to the $60m project.

Miles Electrical had been trading since 2003 and had completed extensive domestic, commercial and industrial projects in the region including more recently work on the Hervey Bay High School Sports Hall.