Hundreds of construction workers hit by ongoing fraud probe
Hundreds of construction workers have been affected by a fraud probe into a Liverpool property developer, Unite the Union said today.
It follows the cessation of work on two Liverpool sites following the arrest of Liverpool developer Elliot Lawless last month.
Mr Lawless was arrested on December 18, 2019, at his Liverpool city centre flat on suspicion of conspiracy to defraud, bribery and corruption.
The same day, Nick Kavanagh, 50, Liverpool City Council’s director of regeneration, was arrested in his office on suspicion of conspiracy to defraud and misconduct in a public office.
Both men were were released on conditional bail after questioning.
But earlier this week it was announced that Liverpool-based property firm Vermont was suspending work on two projects it is currently delivering in the city for the Elliot Group.
They are Aura, a £100m student scheme on the edge of the city’s Knowledge Quarter which was due to complete in September 2020, and phase one of the £250m Infinity scheme on Leeds Street – a 38-storey, residential tower with 416 apartments, scheduled to be handed over in December 2021.
Unite, the UK’s construction union, has now warned that many construction workers in Liverpool are facing a difficult time finding work after the two high profile projects were halted.
Unite regional officer John Sheppard said: “This is grim news for construction workers in Liverpool, who have received the dreaded tap on the shoulder and are now being forced to look for new work.
“This is a notoriously difficult time of the year to find new starts and the affected workers who believed they had relatively secure employment are now faced with the grim reality of trying to find new work at short notice.
“The two Eliot Group developments now join a long list of stalled construction projects in the city.
“The construction industry needs a kickstart in Liverpool and key stakeholders need to come together to get the stalled projects on track and construction workers back to work.”
