Confidential documents discovered at former Radius Disability Services Havlin Street Site

Yet, documents containing sensitive information about those who worked for and used the service remain at the former Havlin Street Site. 

Copies of a volunteer’s driver’s licence, bank statement, and birth certificate are among the papers strewn on the floor in an office area.

The building has been trashed since becoming disused.

THE discovery of confidential documents at a former Radius Disability Services site in Bendigo is ‘disconcerting in the extreme’, according to the company’s former chair. 

Russell Robertson was ‘very disappointed’ to learn paperwork had been left at the Havlin Street Site after the Radius went into administration in 2016.

Client records, activity plans, an incident report and risk management documents were found scattered on the carpeted floor in one of the rooms inside the building as recently as this week.

The strewn paperwork contained people’s addresses, phone numbers and emergency contact details.

Documents dating back to 2012 recorded financial transactions related to the Tri State Games.

A dossier relating to one volunteer contained a copy of their birth certificate, their driver’s licence, a bank statement and an application for a police check.

Mr Robertson could only assume it was an oversight on behalf of the administrators.

“They have done their job, I thought, pretty diligently,” he said.

Once appointed, the administrators assumed responsibility for the company’s affairs. That included Radius properties and their contents.

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Craig Crosbie and Rodney Slattery of PPB Advisory were appointed as voluntary administrators of Peter Harcourt Disability Services Ltd, trading as Radius Disability Services (Radius), in October 2016.

The company’s liquidation is now being handled by PwC Australia, which last year acquired key partners and staff from PPB Advisory.

“It was understood there was no remaining property left in the facility,” a PwC spokesperson yesterday said.

“The property in question was sold at the end of 2018.”

The paperwork was discovered because the former Havlin Street Site had been broken into and trashed.

Damage started at the front door, making the building publicly accessible, and extended to almost every room.

Mr Robertson said the circumstances of the company entering into liquidation were distressing enough as it was.

The 62-year-old company had about 133 supported employees, 102 day service clients and 78 general employees when it realised it was not in a financial position to continue and appointed administrators.

PLANS to develop another former Radius Disability Services site into a childcare centre remain with the City of Greater Bendigo. 

One house separates the trashed site where the documents were discovered from the site of the proposed $330,000 project.

The childcare centre would cater for 110 children and offer a 770-square-metre outdoor play area.

The plans submitted for 9 – 11 Harcourt Street do not include on-site car parking.

A childcare centre of the proposed size would usually require 24 car parks, but the developer is seeking to waive the parking provision.

“It is submitted that existing on-street parking will be sufficient for the needs of the childcare centre,” the project’s planning report stated.

The council received the plans on October 24.

The former Radius site was sold for $537,000 in 2017. Radius went into administration the year prior, citing inaccurate budget estimates and a series of failed income-raising ventures. 

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