NSW bushfires: Atomic 6 customers living in sheds after company director Andrew Lennox disappears from south coast
Andrew Lennox arrived on the NSW south coast in the aftermath of Black Summer promising big things to people who had just lost everything. Then he vanished.
Andrew Lennox arrived on the NSW south coast in the aftermath of Black Summer, a big talker promising big things to people who had just lost everything in catastrophic bushfires.
Mr Lennox, 45, was selling fire- resistant and energy-efficient off-grid homes he claimed could be built cheaper and faster than regular bricks and mortar houses, an offer that sounded like salvation to weary communities facing the slog of rebuilding.
The self-styled innovator from Melbourne said his construction company Atomic 6 had “Industry 4.0 capabilities” and once compared the prefabricated houses to luxury Tesla and BMW cars.
The modular homes were made in factories and then installed onsite, dramatically cutting down the construction time and red tape delaying regular builds.
But then Mr Lennox vanished, leaving in his wake broken promises, creditors and abandoned construction materials across the fire-ravaged Bega Valley.
More than 3 ½ years after the devastation of the Black Summer bushfires the customers of Atomic 6 are still living in sheds and shipping containers after handing over their insurance payouts to Mr Lennox.
A former Atomic 6 employee told The Weekend Australian that there had been a genuine desire within the company to help people, but things, including cash flow and Covid-19, had conspired against it.
Charity Anglicare is assisting 31 victims in the Bega Valley and Eurobodalla shires who claim to have paid Atomic 6 collectively about $1.65m, with individual financial losses ranging from $10,000 to $380,000, while there are at least a handful of victims in North East Victoria.
The Weekend Australian has uncovered a trail of debt and destruction left by Mr Lennox running through NSW, Victoria and Western Australia that includes a Perth cryptocurrency firm and an aquaponics start-up with offices in Asia.
It is unclear where in the world Mr Lennox actually is after Atomic 6 collapsed in July owing hundreds of thousands of dollars to creditors in Queensland, NSW and Victoria.
At a property in Yowrie, about 400km south of Sydney, fire resistant vermiculite board is crumbling off a carbon fibre frame installed as part of an Atomic 6 contract for the price of $78,500.
The frame along with a stove, a fireplace and an airconditioning unit that remain in boxes are all Cathy and John Fawbert received after giving Mr Lennox and Atomic 6 close to $400,000, the entirety of the insurance payout they received after losing their home and most of their savings in the Black Summer bushfires.
The Fawberts, both 63, live in a shed overlooking the abandoned Atomic 6 materials that they most likely will have to remove themselves.
Mr Fawbert, a former sheet metal worker, is now a full-time carer for Mrs Fawbert, who recently underwent hip replacement surgery and uses a walker.
Mrs Fawbert said they had already put down a deposit with a different builder when they were invited by one of their friends to meet Mr Lennox at a community gathering.
“He turned up here in a real fancy car to see us,” she said.
“There were about 30 of us and we were sitting around in a circle at the showgrounds and we were all just talking about these houses,” she said.
Mrs Fawbert said she was won over by the purported fire resistance of the Atomic 6 houses after losing her home in bushfires.
“Like there was a karma there, this house was never going to burn,” she said.
Mr and Mrs Fawbert performed their due diligence. At the time Atomic 6 was a licensed contractor and a member of the Master Builders Association of NSW.
It later emerged Mr Lennox has never held a builders’ licence in NSW nor was registered in Victoria, where he is under investigation by the Victorian Building Authority.
The licence of fellow Atomic 6 director James Evans was used to obtain the company’s contractor licence.
Mrs Fawbert said Atomic 6 had insurance when they decided to buy but said Mr Lennox “apparently only paid for it for six months”.
The Fawberts said Mr Lennox claimed to have built a fire-resistant hospital in the Northern Territory and had been awarded entrepreneur grants by the federal government that came with a glowing write up.
One federal government flyer seen by The Western Australian describes Mr Lennox as a “true Entrepreneur” whose kit-based houses could “withstand the harshness of bushfires”.
The federal industry department confirmed Atomic 6 was awarded $77,500 in entrepreneur grants but did not confirm or deny the authenticity of the flyer.
Atomic 6 had been written up in The Guardian as a “story of hope”. Mr Lennox told the news outlet that he was not a “greenie” who was motivated by saving the planet but instead saw the rebuild as a “challenge”.
“That’s where I stepped up, going, ‘Cool, now we’re doing this, let’s see how far we can go’,” he said.
NSW Fair Trading cancelled the contractor licence of Atomic 6 in March last year, issuing a public warning about the company and Mr Lennox over complaints of incomplete and dodgy work.
Minister Anoulack Chanthivong said it would be inappropriate to comment and risk prejudicing any future findings and said the government was currently working to crack down on the building industry.
Near the Fawberts’ property is a semi-built Atomic 6 house on a property that has been sold to new owners. The steel balcony is rusting, the cladding cheap and imported from China and disconnected wires hang from a roof tiled with solar panels.
Mr Fawbert said Mr Lennox sold good ideas that in the end were just ideas.
“There was nothing practical,” he said.
“But that was who he was, he was an ideas person and he sold his ideas. He’d never built a house.”
Soon after the Fawberts handed over their deposit, Mr Lennox started asking for more money, promising to take it off the final cost of their build.
In one email Mr Lennox sent the Fawberts on July 20, 2020, he asked for an additional $7500 to cover “all these external consultation fees”.
He later thanked Mrs Fawbert for the money and told her: “We have already blown it on vermiculite sheet. Enough to build two homes or close to.”
A couple of months later on September 30, Mr Lennox sent the Fawberts an email acknowledging the receipt of $40,000 “as an interest-free loan towards purchase of materials and equipment”.
In another email sent on November 6 to Mrs Fawbert, an employee of Atomic 6 confirmed the couple paid the company $78,500 for the foundations of their new home to be laid.
“Also, we want to say a massive thank you to John for his work this week and last,” she said.
“We really appreciate it and love working with him.”
A month later on December 4 in 2020 Atomic 6 director JoJo Pappady sent the Fawberts a loan agreement for $120,000.
“We highly appreciate your willingness and kind support to help us going forward with the construction process,” he said.
“Kindly transfer the fund at your earliest convenience.”
A GoFundMe fundraiser started by the Fawberts’ daughter Joelene garnered less than $2000 and the couple face spending their golden years in a shed.
Mr Lennox is believed to be overseas in either The Philippines or Papua New Guinea.
He did not respond to a request for comment.
