Saturday, January 9, 2010

Devine


The Courier Mail has recently published two stories relating to David Devine, founder and major shareholder of Devine Ltd. One story showed Mr Devine living in a penthouse in Kangaroo Point (not built by Devine). The story in today's paper was not flattering.

Two days ago, there was a story titled "Devine sues former employee over espionage claims" which started "Devine Industries Pty Ltd is suing the former personal assistant of founding..." Links on other websites include the summary: "TWO of Queensland's biggest construction firms are in a legal battle involving claims of commercial espionage, fraud and embezzlement of more than $500,000."

The Courier Mail has removed this story from its website and did not include today's story on its website. I wonder why?

The link to the story that has been taken down is:http://www.news.com.au/couriermail/story/0,23739,26553326-952,00.html

"Devine Ltd said is not a party to a case before the Supreme Court being reported in the media, but rather Devine Industries Pty Ltd, a privately-owned entity by David Devine.

The company was responding to the media articles published in The Courier Mail and The Herald Sun." See Business Spectator.

Interestingly, both David Devine (currently listed as managing director of Devine) and Ken Woodley, marketing director and also a major shareholder, do not live in Devine built buildings. According to RP Data, Mr Devine lives in a penthouse apartment in a building at 55 Darragh Street, Kangaroo Point that is over 1000 sqm in floor area, has 4 bedrooms, 4 bathrooms, 4 car parks - that he paid $2.5M in 1998. Mr Woodley lives in a subpenthouse in a Mirvac building, Quay West on Alice Street in Brisbane.
(Photo of Ken Woodley, on the right.)

A few years ago, both Mr Devine and Mr Woodley started legal actions to change the body corporate fees that they paid for their homes. They were successful in having their body corporate fees decreased. As a result, the body corporate fees for the owners of smaller, less expensive apartments in these buildings increased.



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