Boss sends crazy message after worker quits amid $7 million company collapse controversy

A staff member received a shocking message from their boss after resigning just weeks before the whole company went under.

EXCLUSIVE

A staff member has shared the appalling message they received from their boss after tendering their resignation.

Charles*, who asked for his name to be withheld, worked as a project manager at NSW-based electrical and mechanical services company Vallec but could tell the company was on the brink of collapse and decided to get out before things got worse.

“Vallec were in financial trouble when I joined,” Charles told news.com.au.

“They had a massive tax bill. They were behind on payments with suppliers. I saw the writing on the wall.”

But when he quit, he received a shocking text from the sole director and part-owner of the company, Tobias ‘Toby’ 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***.”

Two months later, Vallec and two related companies, headquartered in Newcastle, went into liquidation with cumulative debts of more than $7 million.

Charles personally missed out on around $12,000 in unpaid superannuation, money which to this day he has not been able to recover. The liquidator’s investigations have concluded and all the companies are now deregistered.

Although the text message is from five years ago, sent in 2019, it is another example of the curious business approach of Mr McCosker who, with his associate Mike Arnold, have developed a reputation in the industry.

The text Toby McCosker sent to Charles after he resigned.

Toby McCosker was the director of Vallec and two related companies.

Mr McCosker and Mr Arnold, who both worked at Vallec, are now working for a building company called Alurt Construction, which is based in NSW’s Mid North Coast near Coffs Harbour.

News.com.au has previously extensively reported on Mike Arnold, who has been bankrupt for 10 years and has been banned from running his own company.

Charles and another employee say Mr Arnold played a key role for a time at Vallec.

The liquidator of another NSW construction company which collapsed last year, Workspace One Pty Ltd, also suggested in his statutory report to the corporate regulator Mr Arnold had been a “potential” shadow director – where he is a director in every way but name.

Mr Arnold’s wife Kathryn was the sole director of Workspace One Pty Ltd, which went into liquidation with liabilities of $845,000.

She previously denied to news.com.au 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.”

Neither Mr McCosker nor Mr Arnold responded to requests for comment.

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Toby McCosker (right) now works at Alurt Construction. Alurt’s director is on the left. Picture Chris Knight

Bankrupt builder Mike Arnold is on the left and Toby McCosker is in the middle. This photo was posted to Alurt’s social media account.

A few contractors working on a Workspace One building site in inner Sydney last year mistakenly thought Mr Arnold was in charge and they only realised his wife was the sole director in the last several months of the company’s lifespan.

“I never met her (Kathryn Arnold). He (Mike Arnold) was basically project manager, he was running all the trades, he was basically the man, everything was him,” one creditor, Jackson*, previously told news.com.au.

Rhys Clarke of Cools Electrical reiterated this view.

“Mike Arnold (appeared to) direct that business,” he told news.com.au.

Only when Mr Clarke’s company became involved in a court case against Workspace One did he realise that Mr Arnold’s wife was the director.

Mike Arnold on a Workspace One building site.

Mike Arnold’s wife has denied he is a shadow director.

Mr McCosker, the director of the failed company Vallec, who sent the text message, also worked at Workspace One for a time in a consulting role.

Mr Clarke was baffled as to what Mr McCosker’s role was.

“His title was very very unclear. I knew he was an electrician. I knew he’d done something in the airconditioning electrical industry previously. But very unclear. It was strange that he was there,” Mr Clarke said.

But what was “very clear” to him was that Mr McCosker and Mr Arnold were friends.

In the wake of the collapse of Workspace One, the Arnolds packed up their belongings and appear to have moved to the Mid North Coast.

News.com.au previously spoke to the landlord of the Arnolds’ Sydney home, Gino Moscaritolo, who revealed that he 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 air conditioning unit and wouldn’t pay any more money.

This 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.

Kathryn Arnold standing in the rental property she failed to pay rent for.

In a report to the corporate regulator, Workspace One’s liquidator, Liam Bailey, accused Kathryn Arnold of pocketing $861,000 in company money prior to its collapse – more than the sum total the business owed to creditors.

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

During Mr Bailey’s investigation, which he filed in a report to the Australian and Securities Investment Commission (ASIC), he said Workspace One’s books and records had been so “poorly maintained” that there were 1,851 unreconciled transactions dating back to the company’s very beginning in what he called “abysmal”.

“My investigation into the affairs of the company have been frustrated by the failure of the director to comply with her obligations to complete a ROCAP and provide me with the books and records of the company,” Mr Bailey wrote.

Mr Bailey said he had enlisted ASIC’s help to obtain the compliance of the director.

ASIC filed civil offence proceedings last year against Ms Arnold for her failure to comply with her duties as a company director.

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.

Mr Bailey told news.com.au since the guilty pleas, he has received a “small parcel of documents” from Ms Arnold.

“Nothing like what would be required to comply with the legislation. Otherwise, not much co-operation at all,” he added.

Kathryn Arnold was the director of failed builder Workspace One which went bust last year.

Kathryn Arnold pleaded guilty to two charges of failing to carry out her duties as a director.

ASX-listed City Chic has been impacted from the collapse of Workspace One.

Workspace One had signed a multimillion-dollar contract with ASX-listed fashion company City Chic to renovate its offices in the Sydney suburb of Alexandria.

The project was left incomplete when the company went bust, and parts of the office are understood to be boarded up and unusable.

City Chic never received an occupation certificate but has been using the offices anyway.

At the end of January, the City of Sydney Council ordered City Chic to “cease use of the property” if they could not obtain an occupation certificate in the next 60 days.

A City Chic spokesperson claimed to news.com.au that this was an “administrative issue” from Workspace One’s collapse.

“City Chic is working with the certifier to provide the requisite paperwork,” the spokesperson added.

The deadline to obtain the certificate ended last month, on March 21.

City Chic has lodged a Building Information Certificate in the meantime which is under assessment from the local council.

“The City of Sydney’s compliance order expires on 21 March, but no action will be taken until the Building Information Certificate has been determined,” the council said.

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