Q1 Homes to face music
Date set for public examination of failed company
VICTIMS of the Queensland One Homes collapse will finally have their day in court, with a date set for the State-funded public examination of the failed company’s directors.
The five-day public examination, the fulfilment of an election-eve funding promise from the State Government, will be held in the Federal Court at Brisbane from September 30.
Queensland One Homes, also known as Q1 Homes, collapsed in 2017 owing more than $5 million to more than 130 tradies and taxpayers and leaving families with incomplete homes.
Court records show liquidator Michael Caspaney has issued 10 summonses for examination in the case, which left scores of tradies and home buyers millions of dollars out of pocket.
Among those expected to take the stand is bankrupt and unlicensed builder Paul Callender, 36, the sole director of Q1, and his cosmetic surgery nurse wife Amber Callender, 38, director of related unlicensed company Empire Constructions, which took on Q1 Homes contracts after the collapse in 2017.
“These examinations are always good because, for people who have been summonsed, it’s perjury if you don’t give us everything we’ve asked for,” Mr Caspaney said. “I’ve always found (public examinations) a very powerful tool for a liquidator.”
Strike-off action was initiated against Empire Constructions last month and it lost its Queensland and NSW builder licences last year.
Mr Caspaney has told creditors they could be waiting as long as two years for the remaining money they’re owed – if they see any of it back at all. IT ALL started with making “pizza toast” with his nana when he was two-years-old – now Mudgeeraba’s Evan Seaward is in the running to be Queensland’s best chef.
Mr Seaward has been a chef for more than 26 years and a head chef at what he calls the city’s “hidden gem”, Morsels at Mudgeeraba, for the past year and a half.
“Making pizza toast with my nana was my fondest memory of when I first started cooking,” he said.
“Growing up I was always on the BBQ with the old man. Left school in year 11 and got an apprenticeship.
“I spent 20 years in Sydney before moving to Port Douglas for 20 years, Byron for a year and now here. My food has always been consistent and that’s what it’s all about.”
He will be heading to the Brisbane Convention and Exhibition Centre to compete for the title of Queensland’s Chef of the Year.
The father of two will go against 28 finalists and will have one hour to cook an entree and main meal using pork loins and pork cheeks
Mr Caspaney said “a commercially unrealistic business model” and “a systematic drawing down of the company’s liquid assets in favour of related parties” had caused the insolvency.
The court was told important company records had been water damaged when computers were left in the back of a ute and phone records were lost by the previous liquidator.
Mr Caspaney’s report states
and a mystery box. Mr Seaward said he’s going in with a plan that “all seems pretty straight forward on paper and in my head”.
The competition will be held at the Brisbane Convention & Exhibition Centre from August 4-5 and will be judged by chefs Karen Doyle, Andre Kropp, Paul Rifkin and Shane Keighley.
Mr Seaward will compete at 9am on Monday, with the grand finals held at 3pm and the presentation held at 4.20pm. The winner will receive $2500 and paid flights to Sydney to compete in the Australian Chef of the Year Competition in 2020. he found emails and other evidence that actions were taken to change contracts and display home signage from Queensland One Homes to Mr Callender’s wife’s company, Empire Constructions, a few weeks before the company collapsed.
The Queensland Building and Construction Commission referred allegations of illegal phoenix activities to corporate regulator ASIC.
Mr Callender then started a brazenly-named new company, Phoenix Rural Fencing with his wife as the director.