- SAT issues $10,000 fine plus reprimand and registration cancellation
- Mr Morton failed to properly carry out duties required by building registration laws
- M3 directors and another supervisor previously fined; another associate in jail
- Former building company director ordered to pay $18,000 (Stewart Martincic)
/announcements/former-building-company-director-ordered-pay-18000-stewart-martincic-m3-building-and - Building company director fined for deceiving clients and defects (Marco Marusco) /announcements/building-company-director-fined-deceiving-clients-and-defects-marco-marusco
- Fine for building supervisor who didn’t properly manage and supervise (James Hudson) /announcements/fine-building-supervisor-who-didnt-properly-manage-and-supervise-james-raymond-hudson
Disciplinary proceedings against a fourth person linked to M3 Building and Construction Pty Ltd (M3) have concluded at the State Administrative Tribunal (SAT) following investigations by Building and Energy into the now-defunct Perth company.
The SAT found that M3’s former nominated supervisor, Gordon Malcolm Morton of Bayswater, did not properly manage and supervise M3’s building work as required by WA’s building registration laws.
He was fined $10,000, reprimanded and stripped of his building practitioner registration, with SAT member Bertus de Villiers stating Mr Morton had shown “reckless disregard for his obligations”.
Mr Morton (BP5981; cancelled) was employed by M3 between June 2014 and January 2015 as the company’s nominated supervisor. This role was responsible for ensuring that building projects were carried out in a safe and timely manner while complying with contractual, legislative and local government requirements.
M3 entered external administration in September 2016.
According to information provided by Building and Energy to the SAT, Mr Morton was only aware of half of the 20 M3 projects underway across greater Perth during his employment. It was found that Mr Morton rarely or never attended the construction sites or liaised with the site supervisor for any M3 building projects.
In his summary of the SAT’s findings, Dr de Villiers said Mr Morton had the required knowledge and experience to carry out the duties of a nominated supervisor, but “at best, he had failed to act in accordance with his knowledge or, at worst, he intentionally and knowingly did not discharge his duties in a proper and competent manner”.
Dr de Villiers added: “The material facts suggest that [Mr Morton] had for all practical purposes merely ‘lent’ his licence to M3 in order for M3 to meet its statutory obligations, but without the respondent having ever intended to meet his own statutory responsibilities as a nominated supervisor.”
Mr Morton’s building practitioner registration was cancelled with immediate effect.
“The failures of the respondent were so apparent that we can only categorise it as a reckless disregard for his obligations,” Dr de Villiers said.
“In light of his refusal to acknowledge his wrongdoing, the public is put at a risk if he were to remain a licensed building service practitioner.”
The findings against Mr Morton follow a SAT order in August 2021 for M3’s co-director, Stewart Martincic, to pay $18,000 in fines and costs for failing to ensure M3’s building services were properly managed and supervised.
Mr Martincic’s former partner, Annabelle Martincic, was sentenced to six years in jail for stealing more than $1.1 million from M3 following a 2018 criminal trial unrelated to the Building and Energy investigation.
M3’s other director, Marco Marusco, was fined $8,000 in the SAT in March 2021 after admitting to deceiving clients about the company’s projects and his part in failing to ensure proper management and supervision of its building work.
Also in March 2021, the SAT fined James Raymond Hudson $4,000 after he admitted failure to carry out his duties properly while he was M3’s nominated building supervisor.
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Media contact: BEmedia@demirs.wa.gov.au
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