The boss of collapsed Rockhampton building company JM Kelly has been accused of “pedalling lies and half truths” to the state’s construction watchdog.
Glen Norris, The Courier-Mail Subscriber only|an hour ago
COLLAPSED construction company JM Kelly Group “systematically pedalled lies and half-truths” to the building watchdog, saying that it was in a better financial position than it actually was, a court has been told.
Barrister Craig Wilkins, acting for the group’s liquidator, told the Federal Court that director John Murphy provided one set of financial records to the Queensland Building and Construction Commission while at the same time signing another set of records.
Mr Wilkins alleged the records provided to the QBCC was more favourable than the set Mr Murphy signed as true and correct on the same day. The court was told a profit and loss statement provided to the QBCC showed JM Kelly Builders made a loss of $726,682 in 2016 whereas the other set of financial documents showed a loss of almost $1.2 million.
The QBCC used the records provided to it to decide whether the Rockhampton-based company had the required assets to keep its building licence.
“These documents were signed on the same day,” Mr Wilkins told Mr Murphy. “Now what is your explanation for that?”
Mr Murphy denied he had signed both documents on the same day and “one could be a backdated signature date”. He said the figures provided to the QBCC were correct at that point in time.
Mr Wilkins also alleged JM Kelly had told the QBCC that inter-company loans, which could not be counted as assets, were only $1.62 million rather than more than $5 million.
“What I intend to do is … demonstrate that you’ve systematically pedalled lies and half-truths to the QBCC for years,” Mr Wilkins said.
This is laughable, Mr Murphy was questioned about why the group took on liabilities of almost $1 million to complete several State Government projects in 2016 following the earlier collapse of a JM Kelly company. He said the group wanted to keep faith with subcontractors who had worked on the projects and not been paid.
I have to ask, what about the other 49 million owed to subcontractors and suppliers?
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