Charges for alleged safety breaches on the bypass construction struck out by court

Charges over alleged safety breaches on the Toowoomba Bypass construction have been struck out by a court.

The Toowoomba Second Range Crossing construction.

A leading Brisbane-based civil contractor who worked on the Toowoomba Bypass construction has succeeded in having two workplace health and safety charges struck out by the Toowoomba Magistrates Court.

Niepe Constructions Pty Ltd was charged in February 2020 over alleged breaches of the Workplace Health and Safety Act which occurred “on or about” September 11, 2018 on the Toowoomba Bypass construction site.

But on April 29 in the Toowoomba Magistrates Court, the business was successful in having both charges struck out on the basis they were “a nullity” because the prosecution had only included the facts of the alleged offences in a separate statement of facts and particulars, which while served on Niepe Constructions, was not filed in court.

Magistrate Graham Lee found Niepe Constructions had not received “fair information and reasonable particularity as to the nature of the offence charged”.

“In the present case, Niepe is left completely in the dark,” he noted.

“On the question of whether the complaint is defective, those major defects on the face of the complaint itself cannot in my view be saved by the provision of particulars in a separate document whether served at the same time as the complaint or at a later time.”

Magistrate Lee said he was willing to find the Workplace Health and Safety Prosecutor’s charges “a nullity”, or alternatively, to “find the complaint to be so defective that it is incapable of amendment”.

Magistrate Lee deferred making formal orders to afford both the prosecution and Niepe Constructions the opportunity to consider his reasons.

Both parties will make submissions as to costs.

The Queensland Office of Industrial Relations said in a statement: “The court has not yet made final orders in respect of the Niepe Constructions Pty Ltd matter. Therefore it is not appropriate for the Office of the Workplace Health and Safety Prosecutor to make any further comment at this stage.”