Cooper Engineering Murray Bridge, SA screwed by crooked clients, dodgy courts and corrupt SA Labor Government
By Jeanine Bird
IN the case of Cooper Engineering, the Crown of South Australia is accused of engaging in tortious interference, stealing personal property, closing down small family-owned and operated businesses and seizing private assets by stealth, using well-rehearsed tactics of obstruction, deception and lies.
Cooper Engineering (“Coop Eng”) has manufactured and repaired large steel chassis, chaser bins, air seeders, tippers, dollys, stone rollers, road trains and related components for farming and industrial use since 1983.
As with most small businesses, COVID lockdowns had a huge impact on the small family operation, including supply chain disruption for timely delivery of steel & other supplies, as well as massive increased costs for the supply of parts & components needed to keep the engineering business viable. Concurrently with this, farmers were suffering huge crop losses due to frost. Despite these challenges, Coop Eng was able to sustain a viable business.
Between June 2020 & October 2021, five customers approached Coop Eng to purchase custom-made Bins to order.5 The customers included Glenlea Partners (Peter Williams), Chapman Family Farms (Christopher Mark, Fiona & Bryce Chapman), L & M Farms (Locky & Melissa Wilson), P & L Webster Pastoral Company (Peter & Leigh Webster) & Springbank Farms (Ben & Paul Light). By October 2021, Coop Eng was obligated to manufacture over $624,249 worth of product on a combined deposit of just $340,119.
In September 2019, FJ & JF Edwards (Jay Edwards) ordered a bin valued at $85,700, with a deposit of $25,000. Edwards’ Chase Bin build commenced in June 2020 and ready for collection in October 2020, however, Edwards never responded to Cooper’s engagement to collect the Chase bin.
Cooper eventually advised he would have to sell the bin to recover costs and in May 2021 advertised the Chase Bin for $116,000 (tyres and wheels excluded). Tyres and wheels for it were already on back-order when Christopher Mark Chapman responded to the ad on 17/6/21.
Chapman arrived at Coopers property to inspect the completed Chase Bin on 19/6/21 and wanted a $20k discount but got a discount of $10k on condition that full payment would be made by 28/6/21. Chapman then requested an additional $50k worth of modifications, to which Cooper agreed. Chapman paid $53,000 for the modifications on 21/6/21 but did not pay the remaining $106,000 for full payment, as agreed, thus forfeiting his discount, and owing $116,000.
Back-ordered tyres and wheels were extra once landing price was known, and he agreed to cover unknown expenses on account of covid supply issues in regard to the extras. (Back-ordered wheels and tyres did not arrive until April 2023. Cost: $36,700 landed.)
At 6.44am on 9/10/21,Christopher Chapman, with his wife & son, allegedly broke into Cooper Engineering yard, cutting open a rear fence. Cooper was away working. On 10/10/21, at 6.50am they again allegedly entered the yard and spray painted their farm name on a Chaser Bin.
At 6.44am on 11/10/21 they returned again with a tractor to allegedly steal the chaser bin and many other steel components for the production of bins and trailers, lifting huge gates off hinges with tractor forks. Chapman and his family were at the property all day for three days straight. The alleged theft and beak-ins were caught on CCTV.
Cooper’s wife Xiaoqing Sun was in Adelaide and could see on CCTV people in the yard but was unable to contact Cooper. When she eventually did, Cooper phoned the police, who attended and made the Chapman family return the Chase bin. Cooper wanted Chapman and his wife and son charged for unlawfully entering his property.
Police at the time said they’d never seen anything like it as Chapman allegedly twice offered a bribe of an extra $20k to Cooper in front of police not to press charges, and claimed that officer Geraghty gave authorization for the unlawful entry which was caught on police recordings.
Cooper says he tried for months to have the Chapmans charged but police would not take a statement. Cooper even tried to drop the statement on the front seat of a police car after police failed to keep appointments. He even staked the police station out until he found someone there. At that time, the policeman in the car informed Cooper that the matter was finalised and no charges would be laid. All this without taking a statement from Cooper or his wife.
From this time onwards, Chapman allegedly colluded with four other Coop Eng customers (Webster, Wilson, Light & Williams), who had already entered into legally-binding contracts with Cooper for the supply of chassis bins and Chase bins, in order to defraud Coop Eng.1
Chapman is accused of systematically orchestrating a web of lies by deceitful and criminal conduct, starting with Chapman making a fraudulent claim via his bank to Cooper’s five days after the break-ins on 16/10/21. It is not known how much earlier he had lodged it with his bank. He said he had “made a payment in error, mistakenly made payment to a wrong account” and requested a refund.
On or about the same time, the four others made the same allegedly fraudulent claims repeatedly, resulting in Coop Eng’s bank account being frozen from 4th November 2021. None contacted Coop Eng directly. They allegedly only made false certificates via their banks, thus voiding their own contracts.
Coop Eng and their supporters have listed other alleged deceitful and criminal conduct including that:
1) Christopher Chapman took Richard Cooper to Court allegedly in order to retrospectively cover up his alleged break-in, theft and trespass.
2) In a sworn Affidavit dated 25/10/21, Chapman tendered into evidence at the Adelaide Magistrates Court an allegedly forged document – a tax Invoice – changing the terms and conditions of the contractual arrangement put before Magistrate Kate White. She is accused of holding secret hearings, ex-parte and denying Cooper any right to a defence or fair trial. On 28th Oct 2021, Magistrate White initially refused to issue possession Orders without a trial but by 17th Dec 2021 made Orders without a trial anyway.
3) A Department of Consumer & Business Services (CBS) summons dated 7th Nov 2022, charging Coop Eng partners, clearly states that Chapman paid Cooper Engineering (A FIRM) – not Richard Cooper. This proves Magistrate White grievously erred at law. Chapmans lawyer, Justin Courtney, claimed before White that Cooper had an intentional tort of “conversion”, whereas it is Chapman who is liable for the tort of conversion, without lawful justification dealing with a chattel in a manner inconsistent with Coop Eng’s terms, conditions & immediate rights of possession. Meanwhile, White never issued an Order against Xiaoqing Sun’s property in complete violation of Contract Law.
4) In a subsequent claim of damages by Chapman, Magistrate Panagiotidis made multiple adjournments and allegedly refused to inform Coop Eng of dates and times of hearings or permit Cooper the right to lodge interlocutory applications and counterclaims to defend himself or Coop Eng.
5) Magistrate Panagiotidis erred in returning the money to Chapman, which in effect gave him a free chase bin, and never should have given the money to the alleged Trustee as the chase bin was constructed by (the new) Cooper Engineering partnership after the alleged bankruptcy.
6) In an unsworn statement to the CBS, Chapman falsely claimed that he had entered into a contract with Coop Eng in June 2020 when the 19th June 2021 was the first ever contact with Chapman and his son. CBS accepted this claim by Chapman and leveraged it for legal action against Coop Eng, in collusion with Chapman. Coop Eng business and Cooper’s personal bank accounts had been frozen for months as a result of Chapman’s actions and he and CBS convinced other customers to do the same in sync, impeding Coop Eng from fulfilling customers’ orders, which formed the basis of the CBS action against Coop Eng.
7) CBS allegedly engaged in tortious interference with the Coop Eng business and even instructed customers not to pay Coop Eng for orders completed. CBS Katherine Brown & Christopher Chapman’s instruction to Ryan Hewett was to “take the Chassis Bin but do not pay Cooper Engineering”.
8) Cooper’s wife called Cooper to inform him of the initial break-in and police were called. The officer claimed Chapman was offering to pay $112,000. They were informed Chapman was in default and that over $120,520 was outstanding (plus interest), not including labour for the extra equipment. Further, components were awaiting delivery from overseas.
9) Despite repeated attempts by Cooper to make a formal police report of theft, police denied him even the opportunity of making a police report and claim of theft and trespass on the record for prosecution. Officer Dennis Geraghty is given a USB with CCTV footage, but refused to act further on the criminal trespass and break-in, while Chapman claimed officer Dennis Geraghty gave him permission for unlawful entry.
10) Within 6 months of commencing the manufacture of orders made by each plaintiff, between 15/10/21 and 28/10/21, Chapman in conjunction with CBS allegedly coordinated for Webster, Wilson, Light & Williams to communicate with Cooper’s bank in order to have his account frozen from early Nov 2021, by seeking a refund of their deposits on the false claim that, in an extraordinary series of “coincidences”, all five applicants had wrongfully made deposits into Cooper’s account and then seeking the reversal of those funds transfers, retrospectively.
11) All these attempts by the five applicants to reverse the transactions occurred within five days of each other from 15/10/21, with more than 15 attempts by the various parties to reverse the transactions. Each attempt at reversal would reset an “investigation”, thereby delaying any resolution for Cooper to have his account unfrozen. Consequently, Cooper could not access the necessary funds needed to continue fulfilling orders for his customers or any of the applicants. Chapman carefully coordinated the plaintiff’s approaches to Bank SA, in tandem, up to the very last day of every fortnight, in order to keep Cooper’s account perpetually frozen. This sinister plot was subsequently used by Chapman and CBS to enable CBS to commence menacing Cooper.
12) All five Applicants also dishonestly claimed never to have met or known of Richard Cooper or Coop Eng, despite having put the number of their respective Tax Invoices within the record of the bank
