Bitter falling out leads to NSW building company collapsing as director and employee point fingers

A building company has collapsed after a bitter falling out between its director and two senior members of the company.

EXCLUSIVE

A building company has collapsed after a bitter falling out between its director and two senior members of the company, who both have been the subject of previous news.com.au investigations.

Last year, Alurt Construction Services, based in NSW’s Mid North Coast near Coffs Harbour, posted a happy snap of its team smiling into the camera, which included three men standing side-by-side. They are Mike Arnold, Toby McCosker and Jacob Robin.

Just months later, however, the business relationship between these co-workers has broken down so drastically that the company has been forced to shut down, with two of the men pointing the finger at each other.

Last week, Alurt Pty Ltd went into administration, ceasing all work immediately.

Alurt’s collapse came two days after a news.com.au article about Mr Arnold and Mr McCosker working together at two other companies, which both went bust. The article also revealed a shocking text message that Mr McCosker sent in 2019 to an employee who resigned, calling him a “price (sic) of sh*t”, “a f**king b*tch” and a “w** c**t”.

The sole director of newly collapsed Alurt is Mr Robin, a 27-year-old tradie local to the area, while Mr McCosker and Mr Arnold, who are both friends, held senior management positions at the building firm.

Scott Newton of insolvency firm Shaw Gidley, the appointed administrator, said the company had closed down because of “a breakdown in the relationship between the director, and Mr McCosker and Mr Arnold, who were effectively managing the business”.

“The breakdown led to Jacob (Robin) having to appoint an administrator,” Mr Newton said.

L-R: Mike Arnold, Toby McCosker and Jacob Robin. Just months after this picture was taken, the men have had a bitter falling out.

Jacob Robin, the director, and Toby Arnold, the project manager, taking a happy snap when they had just landed the deal for upgrade works at the Nambucca Heads RSL Club, from August last year. Picture: Chris Knight

Mr Newton said all seven of Alurt’s staff resigned the morning he was appointed and the business has ceased to trade.

Alurt appears to owe a small amount of money to creditors, at less than $100,000, according to Mr Newton.

News.com.au understands Mr Robin claims Mr McCosker and Mr Arnold owe the company money.

Meanwhile, Mr McCosker told news.com.au that Alurt owes him money from unpaid entitlements.

“I was just an employee,” Mr McCosker said. He says he resigned and stopped working at the company and “had nothing to do with” anything that happened after.

“I resigned on March 8, 2024, but gave six weeks notice to help him complete projects on the books,” Mr McCosker said.

“But my employment was finalised on March 25, 2024.”

Mr Arnold was a project manager while Mr McCosker was the construction manager.

News.com.au contacted Mr Robin for comment and attempted to contact Mr Arnold through his wife.

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Alurt Construction collapsed on Wednesday.

This is what appears on its website.

Mike Arnold, pictured at a company event, is the third man involved in the feud.

In August last year, Alurt landed the massive project of upgrading the Nambucca Heads RSL Club.

The club was supposed to receive important upgrades to “strengthen” its capabilities so it could act as the region’s emergency evacuation centre.

Nambucca Heads RSL Club was awarded a $2.07 million grant from the federal government announced after the 2019/2020 black summer bushfires to carry out significant work on its roof, as well as adding solar panels and energy efficient air conditioning. The business also chipped in a further $500,000 for the renovations.

But the CEO of the RSL club, Wendy Mills, claimed to news.com.au that the roof works carried out by Alurt has left them with issues in need of fixing.

An independent building report supplied to news.com.au estimated there were a number of issues with the roof, including that “around half of the Box Gutters have no provision for overflow,” “none of the downpipes had been sealed” and that some of the roof sheets were damaged.

The report esimated that it would cost in the vicinity of $140,000 to fix.

The RSL club refused to pay a progress payment due to the issues and the matter had landed in court. An adjudication order came through which determined the Nambucca Heads pub must pay an amount of money in a progress claim. The court dispute was not concerning the RSL’s claims regarding the roof works.

“Works was suspended when their insurance had expired and they failed to produce a current policy covering works,” Ms Mills said.

“They took the matter to adjudication who sided with Alurt and the club was required to pay the fourth progressive payment.”

This payment was received on the Friday before the business went into administration the following Wednesday.

Alurt was contacted for comment.

The Nambucca Heads RSL is unhappy with the work Alurt has carried out on their premises.

An independent building report found a number of problems costing around $140,000 to fix.

An earlier news.com.au investigation found that Mr McCosker was the sole director of NSW-based electrical and mechanical services company Vallec, which, alongside two affiliated businesses, went into liquidation with cumulative debts of more than $7 million in 2019.

Mr Arnold worked at Vallec as an employee.

Another employee, Charles*, who was working as a project manager at Vallec, resigned two months before the company went bust.

But when he quit, he received a shocking text from the sole director and part-owner of the company, Mr McCosker.

“My last message to you is you are a f**king b*tch that can not (sic) deliver nothing but a box of farts you price (sic) of sh*t,” the message read.

“Any f**king day of the week you w*g c***.”

In response to allegations about the text message, Mr McCosker said to news.com.au, “One side of the story is always just one side of the story.”

He added there was important context, but would not stipulate what it was, nor did he deny sending the text message.

Toby McCosker (pictured) and Jacob Robin are in a dispute over who owes who money.

A text Mr McCosker sent to an employee in 2019, when he was directing his own company.

News.com.au also previously revealed that Mr Arnold, the other man named in the bitter falling out, has been bankrupt for 10 years and has been banned from running his own company. News.com.au does not suggest his role at Alurt breached that ban.

More recently, Mr Arnold’s wife Kathryn was the director of collapsed building firm Workspace One, which went into liquidation last year in Sydney with liabilities of $845,000.

ASIC records show that the liquidator accused the building firm’s sole director, Kathryn Arnold, of pocketing $861,000 in company money prior to its collapse – more than the sum total the business owed to creditors – and also noted there were suggestions her bankrupt husband Mr Arnold could have been operating as a “potential” shadow director.

Ms Arnold previously admitted to news.com.au she transferred money to a personal account to pay and reimburse herself for business costs and did not dispute the amount.

But she denied that her husband was a shadow director and said such suggestions amounted to gender assumptions.

“Unfortunately there are not many women in the construction industry and many of the trades and even clients failed to acknowledge me as the director of the business or take my position seriously,” she said.

“Whilst the project manager is indeed my husband, his role was to manage the day to day operations of the project and he acted only in this capacity.”

Mike Arnold smoking while wearing a welding mask, earning him the nickname Dart Vader.

Mike Arnold is bankrupt and banned from running his own company.

Mr Arnold’s wife Kathryn directed a building company last year which collapsed, and which Mike worked for. She pleaded guilty to failing to comply with her duties as a director.

Mike and Kathryn Arnold stayed at a rental but didn’t pay rent after the first month and were taken to a tribunal. Mike pictured on the steps of the rental.

ASIC filed civil offence proceedings last year against Ms Arnold for her failure to comply with her duties as a company director as she did not provide the liquidator with key information.

In February, she entered a guilty plea to both counts of a director/secretary not make out statement of company affairs and officer not deliver books to liquidator.

She was fined $500 for the first offence, and $1000 for the second, while a conviction was also recorded.

Workspace One’s liquidator Liam Bailey told news.com.au since the guilty pleas, he has received a “small parcel of documents” from Ms Arnold but it was in his view that “nothing like what would be required to comply with the legislation”.

“Otherwise, not much co-operation at all,” he added.

News.com.au has also spoken to the landlord of the Arnolds’ Sydney home, Gino Moscaritolo, who is owed $12,000 from unpaid rent. Only Ms Arnold was signed onto the lease.

Within a month of the Arnolds moving into his property in late 2022, the couple stopped paying rent, claiming they were suffering from heat stroke from a broken airconditioning unit, which led to a protracted battle in the NSW Civil and Administrative Tribunal (NCAT).

In the end, according to NCAT documents, the tribunal ordered Kathryn Arnold to pay back $12,600 to her landlord and for her and her family to leave the premises by June 29 last year.

To date, the money has not been paid back and they left to move to the NSW Mid North Coast.

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