$101k debt strapped to owner of uninsured company

A business owner’s failed attempt to escape a $101,000 insurance debt has highlighted the risks that employers take when trying to distance themselves from their business obligations.

Statements to Insurance and Care NSW (iCare), like “I am the owner and operator” and “I started the business”, came back to bite Peter Tedesco, who had strenuously denied any substantial involvement in Working Lunch Company after an employee was injured.

The Workers Compensation and Nominal Insurer, standing in place of the uninsured Working Lunch Company, paid the $101,771.87 in compensation and medical expenses to the injured worker.

When Working Lunch Company went into liquidation in July 2024, the insurer was forced to pursue the directors to recover the debt.

In attempting to dodge that debt, Tedesco rejected the claim that he was a shadow or de facto director and controlled the company’s affairs.

Acting District Court Judge Theo Tsavdaridis found that not only did Tedesco instruct others “from behind the scenes”, but the evidence also established he “personally stepped into the role himself”.

“He held himself out as the owner, operator and managing director, dealt directly with creditors, insurers and regulators, managed significant operational and legal issues and assumed responsibility for the affairs of the company,” acting Judge Tsavdaridis said.

“In those circumstances, the proper characterisation is not that of a person lurking in the shadows directing others, but of a person who himself occupied and acted in the office of director.”

The “most compelling” evidence was Tedesco’s statements to iCare, in which he described the company “in terms that can only rationally be understood as reflecting ownership and executive control”.

This included that he had carried out his “own investigation” into the circumstances of the injured worker’s claim, that a staff member had failed to report matters to him, and that staffing issues had caused him problems and contributed to the closure of the kitchen.

In addition to a claim that opening the business was the “worst business decision I ever made”, Tedesco also told iCare he had “so many workers’ compensation claims” at its Nowra location.

When confronted in cross-examination with having described himself as owner, operator, and managing director, Tedesco did not dispute it.

“On the contrary, he accepted that they were his words and acknowledged that he had ‘assumed the role’.

“In my view, this concession is significant,” acting Judge Tsavdaridis said in his written decision, published earlier this month.

Tedesco was ordered to pay the insurer $101,771.87, in addition to the pre-judgment interest in the sum of $9,509.81.

Citation: Workers Compensation Nominal Insurer v Bustos and Tedesco [2026] NSWDC 362.

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