Mardi: Adam Robert O’Brien found guilty of kidnapping two men over missing excavators

After seven years and three criminal trials, a colourful Central Coast rubbish collector has been led — barefoot — into custody after being found guilty of kidnapping. Full story here.

Adam O'Brien, 39, of the Gold Coast, arriving at Gosford District Court charged with two counts of kidnapping two men over the whereabouts of a couple of excavators. Picture: NewsLocal

The one time “Rubbish King” of the Central Coast has found himself carted off into custody seven years after binding two labourers with cable ties and threatening to kill them with a sawn off shotgun.

A jury took less than a day to convict Adam Robert O’Brien, now of the Gold Coast, of two counts of detaining a person with intent to obtain advantage.

The 39-year-old was charged after two labourers went to their boss and complained they had been tied up and threatened by O’Brien and another unknown male for several hours on September 1, 2017.

The court heard O’Brien was subleasing a cottage and a shed on an industrial property on McPherson Rd, Mardi, at the time and blamed the property owner and two of his labourers — along with a fourth man — for taking two of his excavators to an auction house where they were repossessed.

O’Brien told the court he took possession of the 33-tonne and 8-tonne excavators as payment for labour he provided to the original owner.

O’Brien said he took possession of the excavators as payment but the court heard he never legally owned them. (File image)

But the Crown prosecutor produced a default judgment in Waverley Local Court from September 2016 — a year earlier — which ruled the excavators never legally belonged to O’Brien.

She told the court O’Brien had been actively “concealing” the machines from authorities and became enraged when he discovered they had been taken to Pickles auction house.

O'Brien arriving at Gosford court with a female supporter and his trademark thongs. Picture: NewsLocal

The court heard O’Brien lured one of the labourers into his cottage before he and another “unknown male” bound him with cable ties and threatened to shoot him in the face or “chop him up with a chainsaw” if he didn’t tell them who took the excavators.

O’Brien then tied up a second labourer when he too came to the cottage.

O’Brien took the witness stand during his trial at Gosford District Court where he denied ever tying the men up but admitted he had pushed one of the labourers into a wall and yelled at both of them.

He said he didn’t need to threaten them to find out who took the excavators because he “already knew” they were involved.

O’Brien claimed he already knew who took the excavators but the jury found he kidnapped the two men in order to find out. (File image)

Instead he said he was angry at the men because they had been “mates” and he wanted to know “why” they would have effectively taken away his “livelihood”.

But in the end the jury took less than a day of deliberation to determine, beyond doubt, O’Brien was guilty of both offences.

O’Brien was the director of “Rubbish King” at North Wyong at the time which was being investigated by the EPA as an unregistered dump site.

The identity of the other “unknown male” who held the shotgun was never revealed.

It was the third time the matter had gone to trial in seven years with two previous trials having to be aborted because of unforeseen administrative and legal issues.

It can also now be revealed that the guilty verdict comes after O’Brien was found guilty in the Land and Environment Court in November last year of falsifying invoices relating to the removal of asbestos from a Sydney building site.

O’Brien was the owner of a dodgy waste and recycling facility at North Wyong called “Rubbish King” which was slapped with multiple “stop work” notices by the Environment Protection Authority (EPA) dating back to 2016.

The EPA began investigating Rubbish King when officers found a mountain of uncontained waste at the company’s Lucca Rd property and O’Brien charging tradies cash to dump further rubbish.

The EPA closed down O’Brien’s site on Lucca Rd but pursued him in the L & E Court, which resulted in the convictions for falsifying documents.

O’Brien was known for his penchant for matching bare feet and thongs with suits for his court appearances, claiming he had once been electrocuted and could no longer wear normal shoes.

He will be sentenced in June.