ASIC has disqualified former building and construction industry director Declan James Murphy, of Palm Cove, Queensland, from managing corporations for the maximum period of five years due to his involvement in the failure of three companies.

Between November 2011 and March 2019, Mr Murphy was a director of three companies in the building and construction industry:

• Mayford Contracting Pty Ltd (ACN 154 386 991);      
• Mayford Carpentry Pty Ltd (ACN 146 814 726); and
• HSEA Group Pty Ltd (ACN 613 382 004).

ASIC found that Mr Murphy acted improperly and failed to meet his obligations as director when he:

• failed to ensure Mayford Contracting and Mayford Carpentry complied with their tax obligations;
• caused or allowed the transfer of funds from Mayford Contracting and Mayford Carpentry bank accounts into personal accounts; and
• failed to prevent the companies from incurring debts when they were insolvent.

At the time of ASIC’s decision, the three companies owed a combined total of $10,739,423 to unsecured creditors, including $562,000 in employee entitlements and $5,216,904 to the Australian Taxation Office.

Mr Murphy has been an undischarged bankrupt since 13 March 2019.

In disqualifying Mr Murphy, ASIC relied on supplementary reports lodged by Mayford Contracting’s liquidator, Joanne Dunn of FTI Consulting and Mayford Carpentry’s liquidator, Steven Staatz of Vincents.  ASIC assisted Ms Dunn and Mr Staatz to prepare their reports by providing funding from the Assetless Administration Fund.

Mr Murphy is disqualified from managing corporations until 4 March 2027.

Mr Murphy has the right to seek a review of ASIC’s decision by the Administrative Appeals Tribunal.

Background

Section 206F of the Corporations Act allows ASIC to disqualify a person from managing corporations for a maximum period of five years if, within a seven year period, the person was an officer of two or more companies, and those companies were wound up and a liquidator provides a report to ASIC about each of the company’s inability to pay its debts.

ASIC also maintains a banned and disqualified persons register that provides information about people who have been disqualified from:

• involvement in the management of a corporation;
• auditing self-managed superannuation funds (SMSFs); or
• practising in the financial services or credit industry