one of those bashers Neil Ruut (aka pitts77h)
nice guy, huh?
FEDERAL sheriffs have been given the go-ahead to start seizing the luxury home and cars owned by Estonian consul Neil Ruut and his wife Cindy, who continue to defy court orders to pay back tens of thousands of dollars they ripped off workers.
In another major development, the Estonian Foreign Affairs Ministry has told the Mercury it will revoke Mr Ruut's honorary consul licence following a string of media articles about the breach.
The resolution, made on February 16 but issued earlier this month, has removed his consul title, with all Estonian citizens in Tasmania now encouraged to take any inquiry to the Estonian Consulate in Sydney.
In one of Australia's largest individual penalties for workplace breaches, last year Mr and Mrs Ruut were found to have underpaid 47 employees $176,000 when they owned Security Protection Services Pty Ltd.
The rip-off was uncovered during a national security industry "sting" by the Fair Work Ombudsman in 2008 and early 2009.
In June last year, they still had more than $134,000 owing to the workers and were given 60 days to pay up. Yesterday it was confirmed a warrant of seizure and sale had officially been forwarded to federal marshal David Watson in Canberra.
Last month, federal magistrate Frank Turner ordered all of the relevant documents relating to assets owned by the Ruuts, and total amounts outstanding, to be sent to the court.
Although Mr Watson was unable to discuss specific matters relating to any case, he told the Mercury about the steps he would now take to obtain money owed following a court decision.
Mr Watson, who has jurisdiction across the nation, will contact local police, sheriffs or bailiffs and issue them with the warrant.
He said the local authorities would then attempt to make contact with the debtor but if contact failed property such as houses or cars could be advertised and sold without the owner's involvement.
In other cases where the money owing is a smaller amount, assets are taken from the home until the amount of debt has been wiped.
That includes cars, boats and other assets.
"Sometimes we don't need to even be on the property, we can just advertise a house for example and sell it," Mr Watson said. The owner had no option but to comply.
In sentencing the couple last year, Mr Turner labelled them "serial offenders" who had on several occasions started companies and underpaid workers before going into insolvency to avoid paying their fines.
Mr Turner said different security companies operated by the Ruuts during the past 15 years had landed them in the Tasmanian Industrial Commission four times. Each case had resulted in the commission ordering underpaid workers be paid thousands of dollars.
Soon after the Ruuts were advised by the Fair Work Ombudsman that they were being investigated for more than 140 breaches, they leased two luxury vehicles to drain the company of funds.
http://www.themercury.com.au/article/2011/03/...-news.html
nice guy, huh?
FEDERAL sheriffs have been given the go-ahead to start seizing the luxury home and cars owned by Estonian consul Neil Ruut and his wife Cindy, who continue to defy court orders to pay back tens of thousands of dollars they ripped off workers.
In another major development, the Estonian Foreign Affairs Ministry has told the Mercury it will revoke Mr Ruut's honorary consul licence following a string of media articles about the breach.
The resolution, made on February 16 but issued earlier this month, has removed his consul title, with all Estonian citizens in Tasmania now encouraged to take any inquiry to the Estonian Consulate in Sydney.
In one of Australia's largest individual penalties for workplace breaches, last year Mr and Mrs Ruut were found to have underpaid 47 employees $176,000 when they owned Security Protection Services Pty Ltd.
The rip-off was uncovered during a national security industry "sting" by the Fair Work Ombudsman in 2008 and early 2009.
In June last year, they still had more than $134,000 owing to the workers and were given 60 days to pay up. Yesterday it was confirmed a warrant of seizure and sale had officially been forwarded to federal marshal David Watson in Canberra.
Last month, federal magistrate Frank Turner ordered all of the relevant documents relating to assets owned by the Ruuts, and total amounts outstanding, to be sent to the court.
Although Mr Watson was unable to discuss specific matters relating to any case, he told the Mercury about the steps he would now take to obtain money owed following a court decision.
Mr Watson, who has jurisdiction across the nation, will contact local police, sheriffs or bailiffs and issue them with the warrant.
He said the local authorities would then attempt to make contact with the debtor but if contact failed property such as houses or cars could be advertised and sold without the owner's involvement.
In other cases where the money owing is a smaller amount, assets are taken from the home until the amount of debt has been wiped.
That includes cars, boats and other assets.
"Sometimes we don't need to even be on the property, we can just advertise a house for example and sell it," Mr Watson said. The owner had no option but to comply.
In sentencing the couple last year, Mr Turner labelled them "serial offenders" who had on several occasions started companies and underpaid workers before going into insolvency to avoid paying their fines.
Mr Turner said different security companies operated by the Ruuts during the past 15 years had landed them in the Tasmanian Industrial Commission four times. Each case had resulted in the commission ordering underpaid workers be paid thousands of dollars.
Soon after the Ruuts were advised by the Fair Work Ombudsman that they were being investigated for more than 140 breaches, they leased two luxury vehicles to drain the company of funds.
http://www.themercury.com.au/article/2011/03/...-news.html
