A HUNTER developer has been found not guilty of stealing two air conditioners from a Maitland residential building site amid a dispute between the landowner and a construction company.
Magistrate Ron Maiden on Friday found Daniel Roberts, 38, not guilty of one count of larceny, following a hearing which took place in early June.
Magistrate Maiden said he was presented with no evidence that Mr Roberts had ever set foot on the Gillieston Heights site - which was abandoned in 2017 during a dispute between the construction company and Phillip Kapeller, the property owner who enlisted the firm to build his family's new home.
Nor was there any evidence presented to the court, Magistrate Maiden said, that Mr Roberts was a director of the company in question, despite Mr Kapeller's belief he was "the builder".
The court heard that a dispute between Mr Kapeller and the building company reached breaking point in March 2017 when the construction crew abandoned the worksite.
Mr Kapeller told the court during the hearing that two air conditioners he had purchased for installation were taken when the builder walked away and that he received correspondence from the construction company saying they would be returned when the dispute was resolved.
Police investigating Mr Kapeller's complaint found the air conditioners at a Wallsend unit block which was under construction in 2021.
Although Mr Roberts was at the scene at the time, Magistrate Maiden said on Friday there was no evidence connecting him to the stolen air conditioners.
He said there was "no evidence the accused took the air conditioning units" or that he was director of the building company with which Mr Kapeller fell into dispute.
Magistrate Maiden said "any reasonable examination of the documents" - including the construction certificate which contained Mr Roberts' signature as a witness - "clearly establishes" he was not the builder.
"I am not satisfied ... I can be persuaded beyond reasonable doubt [Mr Roberts] took or authorised the taking and retention of the air conditioning units," he said.
Mr Roberts is seeking costs amid the not guilty finding and a decision on that will be handed down on July 28.
In January, the NSW Civil and Administrative Tribunal ordered BH Australia Constructions to pay Mr Kapeller and his wife Rachael Cesnik $191,366 for incomplete and defective works at the Gillieston Heights block.
The Newcastle Herald reported in April the family was yet to receive any money from the company.
