Colmine Consulting director Colin Donegan gives evidence in trial of former Ipswich City Council officer Craig Maudsley

A contractor has given evidence claiming that his agreement with Ipswich City Council was terminated without warning and for ‘concocted’ reasons.

A jury in the trial of former council officer Craig Maudsley has heard evidence from company director Colin Donegan, who this week said his Ipswich City Council contract to fill a coal mine void at Redbank Plains was terminated without warning.

Mr Donegan, director of Colmine Consulting Pty, said in his evidence that he believed the letter came from Maudsley or another council employee, and that the reasons given for the termination had been “concocted”.

He was giving evidence in the Ipswich District Court trial of Maudsley, who is accused of misconduct when employed by the council as chief operator of works, parks and recreation in late 2016.

Defence barrister Tony Glynn QC for Maudsley, asked Mr Donegan if he was aware Maudsley had been unhappy at the rate in which the hole was being filled.

“It was never mentioned,” Mr Donegan said.

Craig Kelvin Maudsley is charged with facilitating the dumping of fill in preferential terms in an abuse of authority of office to dishonesty gain financial benefit for Landfill Logistics, or with intent to dishonestly cause financial detriment to Colmine Consulting Pty, between the dates of September 14 and November 23, 2016.

The case involves the dumping of fill at the former Wattle Glen open coal mine site at Austin St, which is still operated by Colmine.

Maudsley strongly denies any wrongdoing.

It is alleged Maudsley tried to gain a cheaper dumping price for Landfill Logistics by dishonestly classifying their loads as Council fill.

In evidence on the second day of the trial, Mr Donegan was questioned about a series of emails between himself, Maudsley and others in October and November 2016.

In one email about fill, the court heard Maudsley stated he needed the dumping cost to stay at 85 cents a tonne.

Mr Donegan said he had received the termination notice in May 2017 and described it as being “totally concocted” in that it purported there had been breaches on the site.

He told the court that he believed it had not been written with the knowledge of council’s site representative Peter Scott.

“I was at the dump site and Peter said: “What termination letter,” Mr Donegan said.

“He (Mr Scott) said we are happy with you. You are running a good site.

“He claimed to have no knowledge of it. Totally bewildered.

“I can’t remember if the letter was signed off by Craig (Maudsley) or Daniel Best (council legal representative).”

Mr Donegan said that when he completed the council’s Request for Tender document in 2014 to operate the landfill site, he knew it was “a big job” and that it would involve an estimated 1,200,000, cubic metres to fill.

Former landfill contractor Wayne Innes leaves court after giving evidence in the trial of former Ipswich City Council officer Craig Maudsley on Monday.

He said in his evidence that he was aware the site was intended to be part of an ICC master strategy to combine a number of existing depots.

He said the void had previously been filled with unsuitable material, which he described as, “absolutely dreadful”, and they first needed to stabilise the ground.

He said he agreed with Mr Glynn that he could have terminated the contract but he was stubborn and there were “commercial benefits to us”.

Mr Donegan said although the contract was for three years, the council later extended this in recognition of issues causing delays.

“There was a 16-month delay, and that has been accepted as the council has extended the contract by 20 months acknowledging there had been delays by them,” he said.

“We finally got the sign-off on Christmas Eve (2106),” he said

“Yes we were given access to the site in August 2016. It was a mess and we had to spend a lot of money to fix it.”

Mr Donegan said Colmine wanted to keep a comprehensive record of truck deliveries to the site and insisted the council provide dockets and list the site of origin for each load of fill.

Mr Donegan said that in the agreement he knew third parties were able to dump fill as the intention was to fill the mine void as quickly as possible, and his company always co-operated with this.

He said he agreed the agreement being non-exclusive meant Ipswich City Council could use other fill providers to dump at the site.

“I said we would accept third parties provided they were not poached from existing clients,” Mr Donegan said.

When questioned further Mr Donegan said another company, Ipswich Earth Moving, operated by Tony Halpin, carried out earth moving work for him, and their involvement allowed his company keep the prices down.

“It was also somewhere for him to get rid of the dirt,” Mr Donegan said.

Mr Donegan said he was aware that some company staff believed the price of 85 cents sought by Maudsley, “was too low”.

The jury trial continues before Judge Dennis Lynch QC.