Cowboy developers desperate to avoid jail for destroying Corkman pub

Two cowboy developers who illegally demolished the famous Corkman pub and failed with orders to clean the site up, have hired a top lawyer to avoid jail.

“Cowboy Corkman” Stefce Kutlesovski is trying to avoid jail time. Picture: Hamish Blair

The cowboy developers who illegally demolished the famous Corkman pub are desperately fighting a jail term that would only see them serve two weeks in quarantine.

Developers Raman Shaqiri and Stefce Kutlesovski are appealing a $400,000 fine and one-month prison sentence for contempt for failing to comply with tribunal orders to clear the Carlton site and make a public park.

The pair, who destroyed the 158-year-old pub in 2016, hired a QC to argue that fine was too costly and the prison term “manifestly excessive”.

David Grace QC told the Court of Appeal that the “charitable” men “who have never been in any trouble at any point in their lives” would be “taken from their homes” if ordered to serve the prison term.

But he admitted that they’d only serve 14 days in quarantine at the prison, then be released due to a jail credit system for every day spent in isolation during the pandemic.

“The actual effect of the order of one month imprisonment would be that they serve 14 days – or maybe even less,” he said.

The Corkman Irish Pub as it once stood.

The pub after it was destroyed. Picture: Alex Coppel.

Mr Grace said “we accept these were serious instances of contempts” but it wasn’t so serious as to enforce a jail term.

“It’s an extreme power to imprison. It must be imposed as infrequently as possible and always with restraint,” he said.

The park, a “beautiful vista” with benches and lawn, was now complete at the old Corkman site at a cost of $1.6 million to Mr Shaqiri and Mr Kutlesovski.

The men were previously fined more than $1 million for illegally demolishing the pub.

Mr Grace proffered an apology from the cowboys for their contempts in not complying with the clean up orders in time.

“We are repentant and we recognise what we have done wrong,” the apology read.

But lawyer Paul Holdenson QC, for Melbourne City Council, said the men had been found to have “wilfully disregarded the orders” and only complied at the 11th hour or not at all.

The panel of judges reserved their decision on an appeal of the sentence for contempt.

An appeal against the conviction was abandoned.

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