Michael Dib: company of Melbourne developer nailed for EPA breach on Burnley St apartments

A company owned by a big name developer has flagrantly ignored a clean-up order from the EPA over a Richmond apartment box, costing them big time.

The apartment complex at 205 Burnley St, Richmond, had dangerous levels of toxic TCE gas, a court heard.

A well-known Melbourne developer has pleaded guilty to ignoring the state’s top environmental regulator over a toxic gas detected in the carpark of his company’s Richmond apartment complex.

Michael Dib was the sole director of Axcent Apartments Pty Ltd in 2012, when he bought the Burnley St block where he was later to build an eight-storey, 111-unit apartment complex, the Melbourne Magistrates’ Court heard on Tuesday.

But despite being aware of soil and groundwater being contaminated by the toxic TCE gas Axcent, who pleaded guilty to charges brought by the EPA, are still yet to take action on the EPA’s clean-up order.

Axcent Apartments, which no longer own the Burnley St complex, was convicted and ordered to pay $500,000 into a trust for the purpose of affecting the clean-up order.

Although taking the matter of the EPA order to the Supreme Court in 2018, the court heard this week that Axcent did not continue with the appeal.

Ekin Orucoglu, for the EPA, said 570 days had passed since the accused had failed to engage in the required audit.

In a summary read out in court, Mr Orucoglu said that a renewed EPA investigation into the toxic chemicals began in April 2018, shortly before residents began moving into the Burnley St address.

In December 2019, Axcent were handed a fresh clean-up notice by the EPA, on the grounds that the levels of TCE detected in the carpark were above regulations, although not to the extent it would have presented a health risk to its users.

The EPA told the court that the offending was “serious” and more so because Axcent had seemingly pursued profits ahead of “human and environmental health”.

It described the offending as “foreseeable and easy to prevent”.

Raja Appurdurai, for the defence, said that no audit was required as a condition of the planning approval obtained in 2014.

Mr Appurdurai said Axcent was aware that part of the soil was contaminated, but that it was understood to have come from former industrial properties further to the south.

Magistrate Andrew Capell said the matter was “too serious” for Axcent to avoid conviction, as had been submitted by the defence.

Mr Capell said the late guilty plea “suggested a lack of remorse” on behalf of the defendant, and said that “when a statutory authority requires you to act — you do.”

He ordered Axcent Apartments to pay $500,000 into a specified legal account, which he said would ensure the money was spent on the required environmental audit.