Updated April 27, 2017 16:50:52

Photo: Gangland figure Mick Gatto declined to comment about the story. (AAP: Julian Smith)

A building company linked to underworld figure Mick Gatto has been targeted in an online campaign by sub-contractors who say the company has ripped them off after they did work on apartment complexes.

The campaign includes a website that accuses the director of the builder, Imagebuild Group, of hiding money and assets while simultaneously refusing to pay tradesman and other sub-contractors.

The people responsible for the website are an IT specialist and an electrician who are allegedly owed more than $400,000 by Imagebuild Group, whose director is Brett Spits, and another company linked to the Spits family called SFOPPS.

The website says SFOPPS was placed into liquidation just prior to Christmas owing tradesmen millions of dollars, and that the director, Mr Spits' mother, Theresa, was replaced by a "dummy" director shortly before liquidation.

ASIC records show the company was placed into liquidation in December, and that at the time, the director was a woman with a different name.

Mick Gatto's son Damien works for Imagebuild Group, and it is believed that Mr Gatto Snr has invested heavily in an apartment complex being built by the company in Spencer Street, West Melbourne.

Mr Gatto declined to comment when approached by the ABC.

The people responsible for the website, electrician Peter Stacey and IT specialist Ty Koers, have also posted audio recordings of phone calls from a man called Corey Gale, who they say is employed by Imagebuild to intimidate creditors.

In one of the phone calls, Mr Gale tells the director of the IT company that unless he restores the IT functions to Imagebuild Group — which were shut off because of a failure to pay — the builder will charge the IT company $10,000 a day and the debt will then be "passed on" to debt collectors.

"Professional debt collectors. They know what they're doing," Mr Gale said in the phone call.

"It'll be another 10 tomorrow, so that's 30, and then another 10 a day."

A letter from Mr Gale to Imagebuild's creditors — also posted on the site — claims that Imagebuild Group is struggling to pay its debts because the electrical contractor did a poor job on a project in Nicholson Street, Brunswick, and construction was delayed.

He also claims Imagebuild Group is about to finalise a loan with an unnamed bank which will allow it to pay its debts, and is taking legal action against the electrical contractor.

The electrical contractor in question vehemently denies the allegations of poor workmanship and is involved in legal proceedings against Imagebuild Group.

Imagebuild Group is also a client of a firm of solicitors that was raided by the Australian Tax Office recently as part of an investigation into massive tax evasion.

The law firm, Ainslie, Harding and Wood Solicitors, was linked to so-called "wealth creator" Philip Whiteman, who is being investigated by the ATO over allegations that he has helped companies avoid millions of dollars in tax.

The ABC has revealed previously that one of the tactics used by Mr Whiteman is to place "dummy" directors into companies before their liquidation, in order to frustrate liquidators and creditors who are trying to unravel the company's finances.

Mr Whiteman's assets were frozen earlier this month and four of his companies - including the law firm - placed into provisional liquidation after dozens of ATO officers raided his Prahran headquarters, seizing documents and computers.

The website's creators claim that Brett Spits has recently purchased a Lamborghini and is building a multi-million dollar luxury home, and that they will publish details of more of Mr Spits' assets in coming days.

They say Mr Spits' mother Theresa has recently sold two multi-million-dollar properties.

Topics: building-and-construction, industry, business-economics-and-finance, melbourne-3000, vic, australia

First posted April 27, 2017 16:24:29