Michael Frederick Jan Doevendans in court for building industry offences
An unlicensed ‘builder’ with a history of unfinished and dodgy work has been fined $11,000 and is looking for a job in the mines after the law finally caught up with him.
Police & Courts
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A dodgy “builder” has faced court for carrying out work without a licence, with the work he carried out on the $40,000 project later found to have defects amounting to more than $12,000.
Michael Frederick Jan Doevendans faced Maryborough Magistrates Court on Wednesday, pleading guilty to carrying out building work while not holding a contractor’s licence along with demanding or receiving a deposit greater than the specified percentage of a contract price before providing services and starting contracted services before the contract complied with requirements.
A Queensland Building and Construction Commission legal representative appeared via phone before the court, where he said Doevendans had been convicted before of similar offences.
He had received “significant commercial gain” from the endeavour and had been paid more than $40,000 for his work, the court was told.
A QBCC building inspector had attended the property after Doevendans finished and had identified a number of “defective items of work”, it heard.
The court heard when Doevendans was directed to organise for a licensed builder to fix the work, he failed to comply with that direction.
An expert who assessed the work estimated it would cost $12,474.55 for a licensed contractor to fix.
Mitigating factors were also considered, including his early pleas of guilty.
Doevendans had previously been sentenced in Hervey Bay Magistrates Court as the operator of Micks Retaining Walls & Maintenance and had pleaded guilty to three counts of breaching the Australian Consumer Law after failing to supply goods and services.
At the time, the court heard that between October 2020 and November 2021, Doevendans had accepted payments from several people totalling more than $63,000, to remove and build retaining walls and fences in Brisbane and Hervey Bay.
People paid large deposits after being promised the work would commence and be completed within a few days.
However, Doevendans did not complete the jobs, stringing some customers along for months with claims of supplier issues.
One customer paid a $15,000 deposit to have existing retaining walls removed and replaced.
The court heard Doevendans began work but later threatened the customer, demanding more money for the removal of rock and dirt, or he would leave it in the driveway.
The customer gave him another $10,000, but Doevendans never returned to finish the job, leaving the property in a dangerous state, the court heard.
Doevendans refused to refund customers, stating they were simply “changing their minds” about the services.
However, after waiting months for rescheduled start dates the consumers still hadn’t received the services or a refund.
Doevendans was fined $5500 and ordered to pay $25,000 in compensation to affected consumers for those offences.
A conviction was recorded.
In relation to the new offences, Magistrate John Milburn told Doevendans, who represented himself in court, that his actions had been “inappropriate”.
He said Doevendans had conducted work without being appropriately licensed.
Mr Milburn said October, 2021, Doevendans had provided the victim with a quote of $40,000 to build a fence, retaining wall and gate at a residential property in the area.
He said an invoice had been provided to the victim in the amount of $20,000 for a deposit, which exceeded the amount that could be lawfully requested.
Doevendans provided a written contract, which was a further offence, Mr Milburn said.
“To some degree it might be said you are preying on individuals, members of our community, who would expect that you would be properly licensed,” Mr Milburn said.
The court heard Doevendans was unemployed and looking to work in the mines.
He was fined $11,000 and ordered to pay the compensation to address his defective work.
Convictions were recorded.
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