A BUNDABAH man is yet to pay a $7500 fine and up to $48,000 in legal costs to Great Lakes Council after a decade long saga played out yet again in the Land and Environment Court in December last year.
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Mr Michael Spalding of Bundabah, who pleaded guilty to the charge of development without consent, is currently residing in Switzerland and is yet to pay court imposed fines or legal costs.
“We’ll get the money one way or another,” council’s investigations and compliance coordinator Greg Pevitt said.
“This man has given council grief for a lot of years and if we had done nothing the implications would have been terrible for us.”
Mr Spalding first came to council’s attention in 2002 as the owner of thirteen quarter-acre blocks all of which were zoned by council as ‘1 (a) Rural’ which forbids the construction of a dwelling.
“The land in question is zoned rural which means that unless it is above 40 hectares in size, you can’t build a house on it.” Mr Pevitt explained.
“This block of land is just over 1500 square metres which is far below the 40 hectares.”
Mr Spalding submitted a development application to council in December 2002 asking to erect a shed for the conduct of a wholesale nursery on the property. Aware of council’s objections to the plan as people had been known to outfit such sheds and live in them, Mr Spalding gave the explicit undertaking in an email to then mayor John Chadban that the proposed shed would “not be used at any time for any other purpose than as a storage shed.”
Before consent had been given in September 2003 Mr Spalding had begun the development without consent.
“Council was given several written undertakings that it would never be used as a dwelling but we knew from the outset there was a hidden agenda there,” Mr Pevitt said.
Mr Spalding made several applications to install amenities for his proposed wholesale nursery shed and was repeatedly warned that the building was not to be used as a dwelling.
Mr Spalding’s undoing came when Tea Gardens Century 21 rang council to arrange for a waste pickup at the address in April last year. Council found that Mr Spalding had fully converted the shed for human occupation and had placed a tenant in the property on a six month lease at $200 per week.
Council resolved on June 14 to take action against Mr Spalding and the matter was filed in the Land and Environment Court on October 11. In ensuing correspondence Mr Spalding noted that he planned to plead guilty to the charge and that he planned to migrate to Switzerland for 11 months on January 10 this year.
Both the prosecutor and defendant asked the court for expedited sentencing. On December 20 Mr Spalding was ordered to pay council’s court costs and was fined $20,000 which given his early guilty plea and request for expedited sentencing was reduced to $15,000.
This fine was again reduced to $7500 after the judge took into account the defendants financial circumstances and ability to pay the fine plus costs which early estimates indicate will be in the vicinity of $48, 000.
Mr Pevitt expressed disappointment at the reduction in the fine.
“For the most part I think Chief Justice Preston gave a very fair and reasonable judgement, but I found the reduced fine extremely disappointing. The tenant remained on the property for longer than the six month lease period and Mr Spalding received $6000 in rental income from the illegal development so he’s really only been fined $1500. He’s skipped the country and now he’s over in Switzerland and he hasn’t paid anything as yet”
Despite the leniency of the final fine Mr Pevitt believes that the action was well worth it for council.
“He still owns 12 blocks of land without building entitlement in that area and we’ve been able to crack down hard on some similar situations we’ve found out there so it was a good outcome for council.”