ACT Magistrates Court orders $1.5 million in damages after lead waste left at Fyshwick commercial site

The company, MRI (ACT) Pty Ltd, now insolvent, leased and then abandoned three adjacent commercial units in Townsend Street.

The lessor, Sporco Investments, took legal action against William Le Messurier after he failed to remove about 750 tonnes of lead glass when vacating the site.

Mr Le Messurier was managing director of the company and a number of other entities within the MRI group, which also operated across NSW, Queensland and Victoria.

In a decision published on Monday, the ACT Magistrates Court ordered Mr Le Messurier to pay $1,460,976, plus interest on unpaid and lost rent.

The order included almost $250,000 to replace a damaged driveway and other common area concrete surfaces.

It also included more than $700,000 to remove hazardous waste and almost $400,000 in unpaid and lost rent.

Sporco Investments had sought damages for breaches to lease agreements, and ongoing trespass by failing to remove the waste within a reasonable time.

Magistrate Glenn Theakston found the tenants had left "an enormous amount of hazardous waste".

They had also failed to pay rent, and repair damage to the units and surrounding facilities.

The waste included older style cathode ray tube televisions and computer monitors containing lead.

The electronic waste recycling business received these devices, disassembled them and shipped parts to various sites.

However, the court heard it had a stockpile of about 750 tonnes of lead glass waste before vacating the site.

The landlord terminated two of the leases in 2019 and a third in 2021 after the business defaulted on rent multiple times.

Mr Le Messurier did not challenge evidence from Sporco Investments, nor did he present any evidence or cross-examine witnesses.

The magistrate said this "created a challenge" because most of what happened "is solely within the knowledge of the company, its directors and employees".

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Mr Theakston found Mr Le Messurier "directed or procured the actions" that resulted in the stockpile of lead glass.

"The defendant's role across the group and beyond the company meant that he stood apart from the company and directed or procured the stockpile as a separate entity," Mr Theakston said.

"His awareness of, and contribution to, the growth of a stockpile of that type, size and significance on premises with an unpredictable monthly [sic] to month lease and by a company with precarious finances amounted to a close personal involvement in the actions of the company that gave rise to the trespass."

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