Vic Solar and director Sunny Srinivasan fined over misleading sales tactics

A solar company and its director have been hit with massive fines after they cheated vulnerable customers out of millions of dollars.

A solar company and its director have been slapped with hefty fines for misleading customers.

A rogue solar company which swindled customers out of millions of dollars has been slapped with a whopping $3 million fine.

Vic Solar’s sole director, Sunny Srinivasan, has also been hit with a $450,000 penalty and has been disqualified from being a director of any company for five years.

The huge penalties, handed down on May 3, come after the Federal Court earlier this year found Vic Solar had used “dodgy” and “aggressive” sales tactics to get customers to sign up to solar deals, including telling consumers they would never pay another energy bill.

Vic Solar and Mr Srinivasan were found to have breached consumer law thousands of times between June 2014 and December 2018, including by failing to let customers know about their cooling-off rights, not respecting the cooling-off period before starting installations and advertising a false “community bulk-buy” of solar PV systems.

Court documents show Vic Solar made about $41.3 million in revenue during that period.

Justice Michael O’Bryan said Vic Solar ripped customers off, charging them up to $6000 more than market price for solar systems.

“The consumer loss, across all of the sales made by Vic Solar, was therefore potentially in the millions of dollars,” he said.

He said the unconscionable conduct was “deliberate” and “systemic” to Vic Solar’s business model.

Justice O’Bryan said Mr Srinivasan, who failed to appear in court, had shown no remorse for his conduct.

He disqualified Mr Srinivasan from managing a corporation for five years in a bid to protect the public from similar conduct in the future after it was revealed Mr Srinivasan was also listed as the director of several other companies in Australia, including some in the solar industry.

In March, the Leader revealed another of Mr Srinivasan’s companies had been accused of using aggressive sales tactics to get people to sign up to dodgy deals during the pandemic.

It was also alleged he owes staff at Essential Connect thousands of dollars in pay entitlements after he “dropped off the edge of the earth” in January.

Documents seen by the Leader show staff and service providers used by Mr Srinivasan’s company are owed more than $13,400.

Essential Connect was set up in March last year — four months after Vic Solar went into administration.

Despite noting is was “unlikely” Vic Solar would be able to pay a monetary penalty, Justice O’Bryan fined the company $3 million.

He also slapped Mr Srinivasan with a $450,000 fine.

“In imposing a penalty of that size in circumstances where Vic Solar no longer conducts business and has limited assets, I am most conscious of the importance of general deterrence and the need for the court to mark its disapproval of the contravening conduct,” Justice O’Bryan said.

The Leader has made numerous attempts to contact Mr Srinivasan.