A man from Kingswood, NSW, has been disqualified from working as a motor vehicle repairer or being involved in the management of a motor vehicle repairer business until November 2020.
Alexander Baldacchino was convicted in 2010 of receiving a stolen motor vehicle part and facilitating car rebirthing.
He had previously been found guilty of using a car without the owner’s permission and using false number plates in 2003, and was fined $500 for the latter offence.
In 2007 Baldacchino was found guilty and placed on a six month good-behaviour bond over threats to a fellow mechanic who had sought police help after Mr Baldacchino’s son had earlier threatened him.
Yet when he applied for his motor vehicle repairer’s licence the same year he said he had not been found guilty of any criminal offence in the past decade.
In May 2012 Fair Trading moved to cancel Baldacchino’s licence, issued under the Motor Vehicle Repairs Act 1980, that authorised him to carry on business as a motor mechanic and as a liquefied petroleum gas mechanic.
Fair Trading alleged Baldacchino was not a fit and proper person to hold a licence, having been found guilty of offences involving fraud or dishonesty. If he had answered truthfully to the question on previous criminal convictions on his application form, a licence would not have been granted, the regulator argued.
He also failed to disclose to Fair Trading in 2012 that he had been an undischarged bankrupt for the past three years, further justifying Fair Trading’s decision to cancel his licence.
Baldacchino appealed the decision, but late last month the Administrative Decisions Tribunal upheld Fair Trading’s decision.
“Mr Baldacchino’s criminal history, his attempts to conceal this history and his apparent contempt for Fair Trading has shown him to be a person lacking in candour and honesty,” says Rod Stowe, Fair Trading commissioner.
“These traits are incompatible with the requirements involved in holding a motor vehicle repairer’s licence.”
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