A Newcastle tradie has been accused of billing clients for almost 500 hours a month, including for time he allegedly spent exercising, playing sport and even on his wedding day.
James Shafren was accused of charging ‘excessive and implausible’ hours, including up to 19.5 hours a day, by the company that contracted him for a residential construction project.
At his busiest, Mr Shafren claimed up to 494 hours a month at a rate of $300 an hour, amounting to almost $150,000 in invoices for his family’s construction company, Basebuild.
When the invoices raised suspicions, the company began investigating his apparent daily routine using information publicly available online.
That included records uploaded to the fitness app Strava, which appeared to show Mr Shafren regularly squeezing in one to two hours of exercise despite the lengthy working days he claimed.
The dispute has since reached the NSW Supreme Court, where the company, Modern Caves, is pursuing civil action over the disputed charges.
Modern Caves alleges Mr Shafren systematically overcharged for his work, with progress claims showing he billed between 17 and 19.5 hours a day and submitted monthly claims for as many as 494 hours.
The company also alleges some of the hours claimed overlapped with work Mr Shafren was carrying out on other construction projects.
James Shafren has been accused of billing for ‘excessive and implausible’ hours by the company that contracted him, allegations he denies
Mr Shafren claimed almost 500 hours of work, potentially amounting to nearly $150,000 in invoices for his family’s construction company, Basebuild. One of the company’s projects is pictured
Evidence presented to Justice Hayley Bennett included Strava records, as well as information gathered from sports league websites and Facebook posts.
The court also heard Mr Shafren claimed two hours of work on his wedding day, when his ceremony took place in Toowoomba, Queensland.
Under the terms of the contract with the clients, Shafren was allowed to bill for ‘work, including administrative work’, and Justice Bennett said she would not necessarily assume it was implausible for a groom to work for two hours on his wedding day.
Instead, the judge’s concerns centred on the broader evidence, including the volume of hours claimed and allegations that Mr Shafren had billed for work on different projects during overlapping periods.
Justice Bennett described the claimed working hours as ‘highly implausible’.
She said the evidence raised a strong possibility that deceit or fraud had occurred or, at the very least, that there had been breaches of contract or misleading and deceptive conduct.
Justice Bennett granted a search order allowing independent parties to search for documents, computers, mobile phones and other devices that could help establish what work Mr Shafren had carried out.
She accepted there was a risk evidence could be concealed or destroyed, given allegations that Modern Caves’ access to its construction management system had been restricted after it questioned the disputed charges.
Mr Shafren also claimed two hours of work on his wedding day, while Strava records appeared to show him exercising during hours he said he was working
Justice Bennett said the evidence presented to the Supreme Court raised a strong possibility that deceit or fraud had occurred
In a statement, Mr Shafren’s solicitor Patrick Kaluski said: ‘My client denies the allegations against him and I am instructed to defend the proceedings. In the circumstances, it is not appropriate to comment any further at this stage.’
The Daily Mail has reached out to James Shafren and BaseBuild for comment.
The case continues.
