A text exchange containing expletives and emojis was the "reference check" a bus company did before hiring the driver who went on to kill 10 people in a horror crash at Greta, a court has heard.
Linq Buslines and directors, Christopher Terrence Fogg and Anthony John Royle, faced a sentence hearing in Gosford Local Court on Monday, August 24, after pleading guilty to heavy vehicle rule breaches.
The company responsible for hiring Brett Button, who was driving a coach full of wedding guests when it rolled at Greta on the night of June 11, 2023, claimed inadequacies in its systems did not cause the crash.
Barrister Georgia Lewer, leading the prosecution for the National Heavy Vehicle Regulator, said that ignored the fact Linq Buslines had admitted to exposing members of the public to risk for the seven-month period Button was employed.
Ms Lewer said the process to reference check Button reflected a "disturbing culture" which could be seen as prioritising expediency over proper process.
She said a manager at Linq Buslines had texted someone who had previously worked with Button and said: "Hey mate, Brett Button?"
She said the exchange that followed was revealing and hardly an endorsement of Button.
The person replied saying he could "get his rags on if he feels like he's been f---ed over", was a "good bloke", would put in 110 per cent effort to get the job done, and liked to chat.
The pair exchanged emojis before the Linq Buslines manager described bus drivers as "steering wheel attendants" that were "hard to come by", according to Ms Lewer.
The court heard the other person texted that if it didn't work out Linq Buslines could "always f--- him off" with laughing emojis.
Defence barrister Bruce Hodgkinson described the exchange as a request of a person who knew Button in a bus driving context.
Mr Hodgkinson insisted the company had been charged with systems offences, including relating to its recruitment process, that were not about a particular individual.
"Those charges don't lead to this crash," Mr Hodgkinson said.
"They lead to an inadequacy in systems, but they don't lead to this crash."
He said the charge was not in relation to the recruitment of Button, but recruitment generally between November 2022 and June 2023.
Ms Lewer said the agreed facts did not indicate the crash was a manifestation of the risk Linq Buslines exposed the public to.
However, she argued that had Button not been recruited, the public would not have been exposed to the risk in that way, and the crash would not have eventuated.
She said Judge Kirralee Perry had to focus on the exposure for the seven-month period, not what happened on one particular day.
Fogg and Royle have also pleaded guilty to breaches under heavy vehicle legislation.
Mr Hodgkinson said both men were very long-standing directors in the bus industry who had exemplary records.
"The industry has benefited from their very long and good experience ... they have given back to the industry," he said.
The defence team had opposed victim impact statements being handed up in the sentencing proceedings.
Judge Perry ruled on Monday that family members of bus crash victims - including the parents of Singleton doctor Rebecca Mullen - and survivors could deliver statements.
The sentence proceedings continue on Wednesday.
Button was sentenced in September 2024 to a maximum of 32 years in jail for causing the deaths of 10 wedding guests and injuring 25 others. The tragedy sent shockwaves across the Hunter Region, and the nation.
Button had developed a dependence on opioid painkillers, and was driving too fast and "showing off" on the night of the crash. He ignored passengers asking him to stop being "crazy".
