Melbourne builder’s fight to be re-registered after drug conviction

A Melbourne builder jailed for running a drug racket in the city’s north has fought to be re-registered.

Melbourne builder Michael Lim, 59, pleaded guilty to drug cultivation in 2018, but changed his tune years later when trying to get re-registered.

A Melbourne builder busted running a cannabis racket in the city’s north has been blocked from getting back on the tools.

Western suburbs builder Michael Lim, 59, was jailed by the County Court in 2018 for a maximum five years and six months after police discovered cannabis plants and a sophisticated hydroponic set up at five factories in Thomastown leased under his and his building company’s name.

The Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal heard this month Lim sought to have his builder’s registration renewed upon his release from prison in early 2019 after serving a significant period on remand prior to his sentence.

The Victorian Building Authority blocked his registration request and argued he was not a fit and proper person to work in the industry.

Lim appealed the decision to the tribunal this month, but tribunal member Reynah Tang said builders needed to be trusted to comply with the law.

“It is critical that a builder, particularly one that will engage in domestic building work in people’s homes, can be trusted,” Mr Tang told the tribunal.

“Members of the public are inherently unlikely to trust a person who takes a principal role in relation to the cultivation of commercial quantities of cannabis.”

The tribunal heard Lim had lost his house, which was repossessed during his jail stint, as well as his livelihood.

Lim’s lawyer told the tribunal his client was remorseful and he had suffered a marriage breakdown and now barely saw his children as a result of his illicit dealings.

The County Court had also viewed Lim’s prospects of rehabilitation, as well as of resuming his trade, as “very good”, when the judge handed down their sentence, Lim’s lawyer told the tribunal.

But Mr Tang said Lim seemed reluctant to take responsibility for his actions, despite having pleaded guilty to cultivating cannabis at the County Court.

He told the tribunal Lim told a psychologist others were growing the cannabis at his factories, not him.

“Even if I was to accept that Mr Lim did not have a principal role and was simply naive in helping out the other people involved in the cannabis cultivation activity leading to his conviction, there is no evidence before the tribunal to indicate that he has developed any particular strategies to prevent ending up in the same position in the future,” Mr Tang told the tribunal.

Mr Tang denied Lim’s appeal to have his building registration renewed.

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