Capricorn Metals boss Paul Criddle stands aside after assault charges but shareholders not told

Capricorn Metals boss Paul Criddle has stood down after being charged with aggravated assault.

Record gold prices might have WA miner Capricorn Metals flying high, but all is not well behind the scenes at the company, with recently appointed chief executive Paul Criddle facing serious assault charges in Perth.

Criddle was only appointed to the top job at the company in December, replacing long-term boss Kim Massey. But the mining CEO has now stood down after being charged with aggravated assault in Perth last week.

Not that shareholders would be aware of that, mind you. Criddle pleaded not guilty to the charges in the Fremantle Magistrates Court a week ago, and the news of his arrest first ran deep inside WA’s Post newspaper on the weekend. But not a word of it in the company’s disclosures to the Australian Securities Exchange, despite Criddle stepping aside after facing court.

It wasn’t until Margin Call asked the company to confirm the report that Capricorn posted a brief statement to the ASX, after the close of trading on Tuesday.

The 47 year old was charged with unlawful assault causing bodily harm with circumstances of aggravation after incidents on March 28 and 29 this year. He faces trial in November.

To be clear, until a court says otherwise Criddle is entitled to the presumption of innocence.

But Capricorn is a $4.3bn company, and has been one of the best performing gold companies over the last month or two as the gold price surged to record heights.

Surely shareholders should have been notified before now that its CEO was facing serious assault charges?

Criddle’s legal troubles leave Capricorn founder and executive chairman Mark Clark back on the tools, at least until the matter is resolved in November.

Vote early, vote … Actually, don’t bother trying in Melbourne’s CBD

Early voting is a juggernaut, so much so that political parties are being advised to shift the timing of major announcements and advertisements.

So you’d think it would be easy for Melbourne’s office workers to find a pre-polling station to cast a vote ahead of May 3.

Nope.

The Australian Electoral Commission expects that half of eligible Australians will cast their vote ahead of election day, but there’s not a single early voting place in Melbourne’s central business district.

The closest is a 15-minute tram ride away in North Melbourne – convenient for locals, but not somewhere you can slip away to at lunchtime. Failing that, you’d need to travel further out into the hipster belt – Moonee Ponds, St Kilda, Collingwood or Brunswick are the next closest options.

Sure, the office vacancy rate in the Melbourne CBD is still up at 18 per cent – the worst in the country – and Victorians have been notably resistant to return-to-work directives from their employers.

It’s still tough to get across the city without being delayed by some sort of protest march and yes, Melbourne’s Docklands district is still a soulless wilderness that nobody sensible wants to live in.

But the AEC has managed to put three pre-poll stations into the Sydney CBD. Perth, Brisbane, Adelaide, Canberra and even Hobart and Darwin have early voting options in their own CBDs, however small they might be.

Diners might be back in Melbourne’s restaurants and pubs, but Lord Mayor Nicholas Reece won’t be able to cast an early vote in the city’s CBD. Picture: David Caird

When asked, the AEC didn’t give a reason for the decision, but just pointed out it had adopted the same policy for the recent referendum “with no complaints”

On that, Melbourne Lord Mayor Nicholas Reece begs to differ, telling Margin Call its decision was “baffling” and that the city had raised the matter with the AEC previously.

“As a city with a million residents, workers and visitors on a busy day, it seems a logical choice as a pre-polling location,” he said.

“Failing to have a pre-polling station in one of Australia’s major population hubs is a baffling decision – and goes against our democratic ethos.”