Unified Security ex-owner David Millward does Pulp Fiction dance as workers wait for entitlements

The best connected man in Sydney’s security scene channels Vincent Vega as the chase goes on for money to pay guards who worked for his failed company, Unified.

Unsecured creditors of collapsed quarantine hotel security company Unified are likely to get less than a third of the $12 million they are owed, unless legal action against the Victorian government succeeds.

Also sweating on payments are more than 200 former Unified guards ineligible for the federal government fair entitlements guarantee (FEG) scheme because they aren’t Australian.

Meanwhile it can be revealed Unified’s one-time majority owner Dave Millward — the Sydney identity who trained rugby league bad boy John Hopoate to the Australian heavyweight boxing title — recently resumed his role as director of former parent company USG Holdings.

In the year before Unified went under, it paid $11.1m to USG.

In a report to creditors last year, liquidator Trent McMillen of Mac Insolvency also noted USG owed Unified about $9m in loans.

Former Unified Security major shareholder David Millward. Picture: Facebook

The payments to USG were made between July 1, 2020 and March 19, 2021; Mr Millward was not a director of either company then.

But in that creditors report, Mr McMillen described Mr Millward as a “potential … shadow director” of Unified during that period — an accusation which has not been proven.

Also, last year the NSW Civil and Administrative Tribunal heard police believed Mr Millward was a “close associate of USG” from July 2019 until February 2021.

As part of those proceedings, which Unified launched in a bid to save its master security licence, USG gave an undertaking that Mr Millward “would not hold any relevant financial interest … (or) exercise any relevant power” in USG.

Mr Millward, who is understood to have moved to the Central Coast, did not respond to requests for comment.

Mr McMillen has yet to decide whether it is worth chasing the USG money.

Mr Millward is now a director of USG Holdings. Source: Facebook

“We will assess the merits of all actions after the Victorian proceedings are finalised,” Mr McMillen told The Telegraph.

Unified was a major security provider to the disastrous Melbourne hotel quarantine program.

Prior to going into liquidation in May last year, Unified launched a $10.7m court claim against the Victorian government over unpaid invoices.

The Victorian government has yet to file a defence.

Mr McMillen declined to discuss the case. But in a new annual return document lodged with the corporate regulator, he estimated the action could bring in another $4.5m, although he is not counting on it.

As things stand, 76 unsecured creditors can only be sure they will get 31 cents in the dollar owed.

The largest unsecured creditor is the Australian Taxation Office, owed $8.5m.

Mr McMillen has so far raised about $4m by selling assets and collecting debts. This includes full payment of $1.57m by the NSW government for work Unified did at Sydney’s Covid quarantine hotels.

The state initially refused to pay.

But ultimately the claim “was resolved without litigation,” Mr McMillen said.

Unified Security Group’s former office in Ashfield. Picture: Richard Dobson

Unified provided about 30 per cent of the guards at NSW quarantine hotels until April last year, when the state told the company its services were no longer required.

That effectively ended Unified. The government booted it after police moved to strip the company’s security licence, alleging unlawful subcontracting and undisclosed changes of ownership.

Unified went to NCAT to dispute those accusations, but there was no outcome because it went under. No one was charged with any offence.

Nearly 300 former Unified employees have been paid $2m in entitlements from the FEG scheme.

But a further 211 are still owed $744,000 because they are foreign citizens and hence unable to make a FEG claim.

Mr McMillen said: “I am confident they will be paid out 100c in the dollar.”