Rogue Perth cleaning couple fined half a million dollars

A PERTH husband and wife have been hit with record fines of nearly $511,000 over the exploitation of overseas workers who were not properly paid.

Catherine Paino-Povey and her husband Mark Povey were fined a total of $510,840 by Federal Court Judge Antoni Lucev for what was described as deliberate and systematic exploitation of three Taiwanese workers who were underpaid or not paid at all for work done.

The case involved the couple’s company Commercial and Residential Cleaning Group Pty Ltd but they were previously penalised $343,860 in 2013 over another cleaning company in which they exploited local and overseas workers.

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