Fake construction training certificates sold in car parks raise safety fears at Big Build projects

A fake qualifications racket is infecting the Victorian government’s Big Build and commercial building projects, raising the prospect that workers and the public are exposed to unsafe worksites, and plunging the state’s construction sector into a fresh crisis.

An investigation by The Age can reveal that large numbers of fraudulent building industry training and qualification certificates have allegedly been issued by scam and criminal networks over the past four years, with traffic management and other construction industry certificates suspected of being exchanged in car parks and pubs for cash by Big Build workers.

One of the construction sector figures suspected to be at the centre of the scandal, Jack Younes, was still operating freely as recently as last month, offering to supply building qualification certificates to a Big Build subcontractor.

Younes and other industry figures, including a man linked to a dead underworld boss, are accused of issuing a range of qualification certificates, including for traffic management and working on elevated platforms.

One official source, not authorised to speak publicly, said the scam could run into the “thousands” and queried why WorkSafe Victoria had failed to alert the industry or public about the problem given the safety risks that workers with false qualifications were posing on multiple sites.

Two months ago, Victoria Police’s Taskforce Hawk alerted the regulator that detectives had uncovered the fake certificates racket while probing organised crime activity in the building sector.

Separately, construction industry training veteran Richard Franks told this masthead that he first attempted to alert WorkSafe Victoria to the racket in July 2025.

“I knew something was wrong when a worker contacted me and told me he had been sold a qualification in a car park for cash but undertook no actual training,” Franks said.

He contacted WorkSafe after he discovered more than two dozen Victorian construction industry workers were relying on fraudulently issued qualification credentials, including some utilising the name of a training organisation he had founded, NSTA.

Franks suspected that Younes, who had briefly worked at a NSTA franchise office before being removed over concerns about his conduct, was behind the scam.

“WorkSafe Victoria was really disinterested but I said I needed an email address to report this to or I would go to the media,” Franks said of his initial conversation with a WorkSafe official in July 2025.

Franks said that after he had emailed the agency, he received an acknowledgment that his concern had been received but no subsequent follow-up.

Franks estimated there were “hundreds” of Victorian workers on building sites with false qualification certificates, including on Big Build sites, creating the risk of “death or injury to a worker or member of the public”.

Email correspondence seen by this masthead reveals that NSTA’s Sharyn Gadsby also alerted the federal regulator, the Australian Skills Quality Authority, in 2023 of the fraudulent certificate issue, but also received no follow-up.

The January 2023 complaint from Gadsby also identified Younes as a suspected player in the alleged racket and warned that he had issued falsified qualifications to an employee of MC Labor, a leading Big Build labour hire firm.

In June, NSTA alerted the Victorian Department of Transport to the problem, after yet another false certificate was uncovered. In that email, NSTA told the department concerns had already been reported about Younes to WorkSafe Victoria and the authority.

Eight weeks ago, Taskforce Hawk separately alerted WorkSafe that Younes was a suspected key player in a continuing fake certificate racket across the state’s construction sector.

In a statement, a WorkSafe spokesperson told The Age: “WorkSafe has been notified of alleged fraudulently obtained qualifications across a range of disciplines, as part of information sharing under Taskforce Hawk.

“Inquiries are being made to determine any potential impact on occupational health and safety or licences issued by WorkSafe.”

State and federal agencies and regulators, including WorkSafe, the Australian Skills Quality Authority and the police, have various distinct responsibilities for enforcing the laws and regulations that apply to worksite health and safety systems and incidents.

For instance, a Big Build subcontractor knowingly employing workers with false certificates could be prosecuted by Worksafe; state police can charge a person with selling fake qualification certificates; the Australian Skills Quality Authority can prosecute a training organisation issued false certificates.

In 2018, NSW authorities issued a public alert “not to deal with unlicensed contractor Jack Younes” after he was “convicted and fined $75,000 over home building and consumer law offences”.

The public alert warned that Younes was operating under multiple aliases that “include Charlie Khouri, Jason Tippett and Jack Tan” and was also using “various company and business names”.

But Younes is only one player identified by law enforcement as an alleged fake certificate supplier.

An underworld figure and former CFMEU health and safety delegate on a Big Build company is also suspected of issuing dozens of false building industry qualification certificates. The figure, linked to executed underworld figure Sam Abdulrahim, first came to police attention a year ago over a speeding demerit-point scam involving construction industry workers.

“It’s a plague and no agency is doing enough to stop it,” another Big Build contractor told The Age when describing the scale of the fake qualifications’ scandal.

This subcontractor’s firm had unwittingly employed dozens of workers who had supplied them with false credentials.

On September 1, Taskforce Hawk charged former Mongols bikie boss and ex-CFMEU delegate Tyrone Bell with allegedly using a fraudulent qualification certificate to run a consulting company advising major Victorian construction companies on how to manage health and safety.

Weeks earlier, Victoria Police advised Worksafe and the Victorian Infrastructure Delivery Authority that it had uncovered evidence suggesting Bell’s suspected certificate fraud was the tip of the iceberg.

When Younes was contacted, he admitted he had personally issued “a couple” of fake qualification certificates.

“I was just in a f—ing desperate situation to be quite honest, mate,” Younes said.

But he also claimed that “heaps” of other industry operators were using his paperwork to issue hundreds of dodgy certificates.

“A lot of people were using my templates and my name to get certificates done. I already know that. I’ve been told multiple times. There’s been a lot out there that I haven’t done. People using the templates and doing them, and that’s the truth. But at the end of the day, I can’t battle the whole army because at the end of the day, people are doing what they’re doing.

“Heaps of people that are doing them.”

Younes identified a leading Big Build civil work contractor that he claimed had been issued 400 certificates he believed were fraudulent.

He said the fraud was occurring “left, right centre, mate”.

Explore our investigation