Victims of collapsed builder Queensland One Homes will have chance to hear what happened in public examination in September
Victims of the Queensland One Homes collapse will finally have their day in court, with a date set for the State-funded public examination of the failed company’s directors.
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VICTIMS of the Queensland One Homes collapse will finally have their day in court, with a date set for the State-funded public examination of the failed company’s directors.
The five-day public examination, the fulfilment of an election-eve funding promise from the State Government, will be held in the Federal Court at Brisbane from September 30.
Queensland One Homes, also known as Q1 Homes, collapsed in 2017 owing more than $5 million to more than 130 tradies and taxpayers and leaving families with incomplete homes.
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Court records show liquidator Michael Caspaney has issued 10 summonses for examination in the case, which left scores of tradies and home buyers millions of dollars out of pocket.
Among those expected to take the stand is bankrupt and unlicensed builder Paul Callender, 36, the sole director of Q1, and his cosmetic surgery nurse wife Amber Callender, 38, director of related unlicensed company Empire Constructions, which took on Q1 Homes contracts after the collapse in 2017.
“These examinations are always good because, for people who have been summonsed, it’s perjury if you don’t give us everything we’ve asked for,” Mr Caspaney said.
“I’ve always found (public examinations) a very powerful tool for a liquidator.”
Strike-off action was initiated against Empire Constructions last month and it lost its Queensland and New South Wales builder licences last year.
Mr Caspaney has told creditors they could be waiting as long as two years for the remaining money they’re owed — if they see any of it back at all.
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Q1 HOMES COUPLE’S ASSETS FROZEN
AMBER CALLENDER’S NEW CONSTRUCTION COMPANY
Mr Caspaney named “a commercially unrealistic business model” and “a systematic drawing down of the company’s liquid assets in favour of related parties” had caused the insolvency.
The court was told important company records had been water damaged when computers were left in the back of a ute and that phone records were lost by the previous liquidator.
Mr Caspaney’s report states he found emails and other evidence that actions were taken to change contracts and display home signage from Queensland One Homes to Mr Callender’s wife’s company, Empire Constructions, a few weeks before the company collapsed.
The Queensland Building and Construction Commission referred allegations of illegal phoenix activities to corporate regulator ASIC.
Mr Callender then started a brazenly-named new company, Phoenix Rural Fencing with his wife as the director.
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