Dodgy solar installer banned, fined for breach of consumer laws

Another solar installer has been caught out taking payments for rooftop PV installations that were never completed, this time in Adelaide.

The South Australia solar installer has been fined and banned from running a business for five years after taking customer deposits for a series of residential rooftop PV jobs and failing to complete them.

The Adelaide Magistrates Court has found the founder of SA Energy Group, Simon Mansfield, guilty of multiple breaches of state consumer laws in 2018 and 2019, according to a report in the Adelaide Advertiser.

Consumer and Business Services told the Court that Mansfield first came to their attention when his business previous, SA Energy Solutions, was accused of performing unlicensed electrical work.

CBS alleged that after SA Energy Solutions went into administration in 2017, Mansfield started a new company with his father as a “puppet director” and took deposits from seven clients for rooftop solar installations, totalling $27,000.

CBS further argued that Mansfield either never completed those jobs, or did only “partial work” that was “always to a poor standard”, and then “gambled away a large amount” of the deposits.

Commissioner for consumer affairs Dini Soulio said it was important for consumers seeking to install rooftop solar to do online research and check reviews before paying deposits to contractors.

“When you pay a deposit to someone, you have every right to expect they’ll do the job promptly and properly,” he said.

“Mansfield took money from trusting consumers and frittered it away, leaving them with no option but to seek assistance from other, more qualified and capable tradespeople – at great cost.”

The court fined Mansfield $14,000, ordered he repay the $27,000 to the victim and banned him from managing a corporation for five years.