by Cam Lucadou-Wells
A repeat offender has been convicted and fined for failing to comply with building orders and to provide reports on essential safety measures (ESMs) for at least three years.
Emad Farag, 64, of Patterson Lakes, and his company E & M Farag Pty Ltd, pleaded guilty to three related safety charges.
They were the owners of the City Edge hotel at 229 Thomas Street – a former four-storey building, which was extended to eight floors, including ground-level shops, first-storey offices and six floors of accommodation.
On 18 March, magistrate Jason Ong noted that completing maintenance records as well as a signed annual ESM report were conditions of an occupancy permit issued in August 2017.
Yet, Farag failed to provide them on inspection 19 months later in March 2019.
Greater Dandenong Council issued him a building order to comply by April that year but again Farag failed to comply on a further inspection in October.
Farag didn’t obtain compliance until June 2022 – a delay described by Ong as “excessive”.
Ong noted that the builder of more than 30 years’ experience and 300 residential or commercial projects in Australia ought to have known about the requirements.
Farag had “great responsibilities” to ensure residents and workers in the building were safe, Ong said.
His failures meant that Greater Dandenong Council had a lack of “visibility” on the occupants’ safety.
Farag’s prior criminal record was “not unblemished”, with fines and good-behaviour bonds from six prior court matters in Greater Dandenong between 2010-‘17, Ong noted.
Ong said two prior convictions for failing to comply with building orders were the “most concerning”.
This included being fined $8000 for failing to obey an emergency order to backfill an unsupported six-metre-deep excavation near adjoining fencelines in David Street Dandenong in 2011.
Farag didn’t comply until four months later.
In 2017, he was also fined $2000 for not complying with a building order to demolish an unauthorized mezzanine office conversion in a warehouse in Dandenong South.
His company, of which he was sole director, had one prior court matter.
In this matter, Farag had argued against any further convictions, citing his now retirement as well as being hindered from complying by Covid lockdowns and the death of his father.
The grandfather’s guilty plea – albeit at a late stage –and his community references were taken into account.
Ong however found there was a need to “send a message” that “this offending behaviour can’t be tolerated”.
Farag and his company were each convicted and fined $7500. He was ordered to pay the council’s legal costs of $40,000.
