Pensioner fined after court hears duct tape and string used to plug shopping centre sewage leaks

A court has heard an 83-year-old used “duct tape and string” to maintain a leaking shopping centre’s sewage system, with the magistrate concerned the pensioner was used as a “fall guy” by his employer.

An elderly pensioner used duct tape and string to hold sewage pipes together before a major effluent leak at a popular southeast Queensland shopping centre.

Brian John Paddison, 83, was sentenced this week in Cleveland Magistrates Court for three offences under the Environmental Protection Act 1994 and the Plumbing and Drainage Act 2018.

He was found guilty of the charges in October.

The court heard a Russell Island shopping centre had ongoing issues with its sewerage system for at least a decade.

Paddison was hired to maintain the system.

By April 2019 effluent was bubbling from the centre’s sewerage system and water treatment plant into surrounding drains.

At one stage shoppers were forced to negotiate the wastewater as they walked through the centre carpark.

Drainer and engineer Brian John Paddison leaves Cleveland Magistrates Court last year in July. Picture: Marcel Baum.

Paddison was employed by Canaipa Developments Pty Ltd director Ian Larkman.

Larkman was previously convicted of 18 offences and ordered to pay nearly $400,000 in fines and costs.

He has since appealed and has also sold the shopping centre for $7.2 million.

On Wednesday the court heard Paddison had struggled to keep the system running, signing off on reports to Redland City Council (RCC) that it was working well.

RCC barrister Keith Wylie said Paddison shared responsibility for the problem with Larkman.

“On one hand, Mr Paddison did his best to keep the system working and was potentially manipulated by Mr Larkman, on the other, Mr Paddison could be seen as an enabler of this,” Mr Wylie said.

“Mr Paddison is not an apprentice that has been led astray, he has been doing this for many, many years.”

Paddison told the court he had designed 500 sewerage systems in his career.

He said he felt that had he not taken the steps he did, the shopping centre would have closed.

“I have had the choice of running a system which did not have RCC’s chief executive approval – which was the system approved by the council – and refusing to do that work could have resulted in the closing of the shopping centre,” Paddison said.

Former Russell Island shopping centre owner Ian Larkman, with temporary measures put in place to provide amenity to islanders during the sewage crisis. Pictures: Supplied

Magistrate Deborah Vasta said Paddison had been preyed upon.

“He (Paddison) is not even a registered plumber – it astounds me that Canaipa Developments got someone whose qualifications are a restricted drainer’s licence to do a major shopping centre,” she said.

“And that is why I am concerned Canaipa Developments – Mr Larkman – have been preying on the goodwill of this elderly gentleman, who wants to still be relevant in the community, wants to do the best by the community and at that point in his 70s wants to keep the shopping centre open.

“He is an elderly gentleman using duct tape and string to formulate some experiment to try to create a solution for what was well beyond his abilities.

“My concern is he is being the fall-guy in this.”

Ms Vasta ordered Mr Larkman pay a $5,000 fine and $2,978.60 in costs to RCC.

She did not record a conviction.

Council hoped the fines would discourage others.

“Council considers the failure of a licensed operator to carry out their professional duties to be of a most serious nature,” a RCC spokeswoman said.

“The prosecution and penalty imposed should send a message to the wider community that council will pursue those who do not take their responsibilities seriously and who put the community and the environment at risk of serious harm.”