Accused cocaine trafficker who shot a man was providing heavy machines to Big Build

A company founded and controlled by an accused cocaine trafficker, who previously shot a man, is a subcontractor on key Big Build projects, raising doubts about Premier Ben Carroll’s claim that he is capable of the clean-up his predecessor failed to deliver.

Major Big Build contractors and agencies scrambled this week to respond to questions raised by The Age on Tuesday about whether they had performed any due diligence before engaging equipment firm Heavy Hire on the North East Link and a widening of the M80.

Heavy Hire’s engagement on the government’s signature $109 billion Big Build program should have triggered multiple and obvious red flags given its easily discoverable underworld links, but these were either ignored or never discovered.

In an apparent effort to defuse the scandal, Heavy Hire was told on Wednesday it would be removed from some state government sites.

The Age has also discovered that since Labor and the Victorian Infrastructure Delivery Agency (VIDA) moved to clean up the Big Build following months of revelations of underworld infiltration, gangland-linked firms removed from projects have allegedly been replaced by other underworld-linked firms.

Over the last six months, Heavy Hire itself filled the void left by a firm major contractors removed because it had underworld figure Mick Gatto on its payroll.

“It’s a merry-go-round and nothing is really changing,” an industry source aware of Heavy Hire’s operations claimed.

On Wednesday morning, members of Victoria Police’s specialist Taskforce Hawk, accompanied by heavily armed police, raided the premises of Heavy Hire’s founder Timothy Fletcher over suspected drug and other alleged criminal offending. He was not charged with any offending.

Fletcher is a hulking and tattoo-covered underworld figure with connections across Melbourne’s gangland scene.

Until Wednesday, after inquiries from The Age, Heavy Hire was supplying multiple diggers on key road projects, having previously provided other Big Build sites with heavy machinery.

A search of public corporate records reveals the company was founded by Fletcher, an ex-member of the Mongols bikie gang.

The Heavy Hire Instagram page previously displayed a photo of Fletcher in his bikie gang gear.

Publicly available court records reveal that Fletcher was charged in April 2024 with cocaine trafficking “in a quantity that is not less than a commercial quantity applicable to that drug.”

He is scheduled to face a committal hearing to examine if the charges will proceed to trial.

Corporate records, that should have been unearthed during basic due diligence, reveal an April 2026 report by liquidator Romanis Cant stating another earthworks firm run by Fletcher, Khan Earthworks, had “been insolvent from around May 2022” after it failed to pay a $564,298 tax debt.

“The company does not appear to have historically made any payments towards its tax debts and relied only on GST and fuel tax credit offsets in order to partially reduce the liability,” liquidator Manuel Hanna wrote in his April report.

The collapse of Fletcher’s Khan Earthworks owing more than half a million dollars to the Australian Taxation Office and the fact that he is still overseeing Heavy Hire — a company engaging in earthworks on the Big Build and with corporate links to Heavy Hire — is another red flag that could have been noted by the government contractors that engaged Heavy Hire.

VIDA and its contracting partners could also have accessed public records showing that in 2012, Fletcher shot a man in the leg over an alleged underworld dispute.

Fletcher did not respond to efforts to contact him and Heavy Hire’s operations manager, a former Finks bikie gang member turned reformed Christian, declined to comment.

In a statement, a VIDA spokesperson said it “has clear standards of integrity on projects”.

“VIDA will continue to cooperate with the Royal Commission and support its inquiry into integrity on construction sites.”

But the agency that oversees the Big Build did not explain why a company with such obvious underworld links was operating on taxpayer-funded projects as recently as this week after Carroll’s public commitment to clean up the taxpayer-funded infrastructure scheme.

Carroll on Thursday said Fletcher’s presence on the Big Build would be “followed up” with law enforcement agencies and insisted his government was going after “unsavoury characters” in the industry.

“There is responsibility for everyone when it comes to the procurement and employment of people on major projects, including the contractors, this will be a matter that we followed up with law enforcement,” he said.

“Naturally, government does have a responsibility, and this needs to be followed up.”

Since last November, Heavy Hire has been directed by a very close relative and business associate of Fletcher who shares his residential address.

In the four and a half years prior to that, Fletcher was a company director and major shareholder of Heavy Hire.

A source close to Fletcher insisted he had ditched his gangland ties and was also a reformed Christian trying to get on with his life.

Seymour Whyte, lead contractor on an Eastern Freeway project where Fletcher’s equipment was used, did not respond to questions by deadline.

Acciona, in a statement, said it took compliance seriously and had strict requirements for subcontractors and suppliers.

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