Auditing the Auditor10/1/2025 The Plymouth Brethren Christian Church is led by Sydney based accountant Bruce Hales. This is a line we hear repeated whenever a brethren story breaks, what we rarely hear about is his actual business interests. Brethren Exposed investigates Bruce Hales registered business connections and his income streams.
BD Hales & Co is based in the Sydney suburb of Ermington, the registered address is 2a Hope Street, this address is at the heart of the Hales family business empire. Other companies that have been registered here include Covid contract winners Sante Global, 2San and Medco Solutions, along with the Dean Hales owned Ox Tools. Bruce Hales is a registered auditor, and until 2024 he was also a registered Tax Practitioner. We obtained the results of a full director search for Bruce Hales, this includes his current and past directorships, shareholdings and companies where he is the named auditor. The results show that Bruce Hales is currently the individual owner of B.D Hales & Co, he is a director and shareholder of 2 Hope Street Superannuation Fund Pty Ltd and was previously on two separate occasions a director of Concord Financial Services Pty Ltd, he is still a current shareholder in Concord Financial Services Pty Ltd and in Ermington Group Pty Ltd. Previously, he was a shareholder in Riverstone Investor Pty Ltd, Anza Aviation Pty Ltd and West Ryde Properties Pty Ltd. Concord Financial Services Pty Ltd (ABN:62 001 401 225) operates under the business names, Archline, Archline Office Interiors and Archline Office & Partition Systems, with the latter also being a trading name of Concord Financial Services Pty Ltd. West Ryde Properties Pty Ltd operated under the business name Arndell House. Our research into Arndell House flagged that Alpha Lifecare & CareQuip, businesses owned by John Anderson, operated at premises called Arndell House, 2 Hobeche Rd, Arndell Park NSW. Hales is also a former director of the brethren school, MET - Oatlands Campus Pty Ltd, and previously the auditor for both the now deregistered, Edgeworth Junior Soccer Club Limited and the still registered All Pumps Holdings Pty Ltd. 
AuditorCurrently Bruce Hales is the appointed auditor for just five registered companies
It stands out that appointing Bruce Hales as an auditor is not common, in fact it would appear most unusual. A registered auditor for essentially just three businesses, Westlab, Voltex and Bell River Homes. Brethren Exposed took a deeper dive into these three companies and then shared our investigation with ABC News, Four Corners, The Age and Sydney Morning Herald, you may have seen the stories they reported on about Westlab and Voltex. Westlab Prior to the pandemic Westlab was a company supplying laboratory equipment and supplies. Owned by the Grace family from Victoria, Australia, the business was awarded contracts for PPE, Medical Supplies and Covid Tests. It has been reported that they benefitted from contracts worth circa $130 million. We can exclusively reveal that it is very likely that the full story behind the Covid Contracts has never been uncovered! We have copies of the Westlab accounts filed for the years ending 2021, 2022 and 2023. In 2021, the business had sales revenue of circa $52 million and Brethren Exposed believe that some of that turnover would have been for Covid related PPE contracts. It is our estimate that prior to the pandemic Westlab would have had revenue of circa $20-30 million per year. In 2022, Westlab reported an astonishing sales revenue of $534 million and for 2023 the business had revenue of just over $100 million. Therefore, over the 3 year period of the Covid pandemic, the company reported a total sales revenue of $686 million! A basic calculation estimating the established laboratory equipment and supplies business as having sales of $30 million a year and a further reported $130 million in Covid Contracts. The question then has to be asked how did company land the additional $460 million in sales? Our research would suggest that this came from further Covid Contracts awarded by the Australian state governments for Rapid Antigen Tests. An example would be the Contract issued by the Victoria government, where the total value is given but not the breakdown by the suppliers, which included Westlab. The former Health Minister for the then Morrison government was Greg Hunt, he was the minister at the time of many of the Westlab contract awards. Since leaving government Hunt has become a board advisor to three brethren companies, including Connected Global, a company owned by the owners of Westlab, the Grace family from Victoria. Hunt has issued statements to both ABC and the Age in Melbourne. Bruce Hales acting as the appointed auditor is not the only connection between the Hales family and Westlab. Westlab worked in conjunction with Sante Global to deliver the Covid tests. Sante Global is owned by Gareth & Charles Hales. Brethren Exposed believe that Sante Global acted as the 'middleman' between Westlab and the private label manufacturer of the Rapid Antigen Tests, MP Biomedicals. The accounts filed by Sante Global appear to back up our belief. It would also show that Hales made a larger profit out of the Covid Tests than the Grace family, and that Sante & Westlab show combined profits after tax of over $150 million! Voltex Voltex is owned by the Tunley family from South Australia. It is a business that supplies electrical accessories. Brethren Exposed discovered that the company had donated $115,000 to the Liberal Party in March 2022, just days before the 2022 Australian election, though the donation was recorded incorrectly by the Australian Election Commission (AEC), they recorded the donation as from Voltex Electrical Pty Ltd. This was a 'one man company', basically a local electrician from Victoria. We realised that this would be highly improbable and with assistance we have obtained clarification from the AEC that is should have read Voltex Electrical Accessories Pty Ltd, and that they would be amending the record accordingly. It would seem somewhat unusual if as the auditor of Voltex, that Bruce Hales was not aware of the large donation to the Liberal Party. We also note that in the Voltex Electrical Accessories accounts for 2022, that it shows a loan of $26 million from Voltex Holdings, though this is not reported in the filed accounts for Voltex Holdings. The donation to the Liberal Party is not reported in either the Voltex Electrical Accessories or Voltex Holdings filed accounts for year ending 30th June, 2022. Bell River Homes Bell River Homes is owned by NSW based David Sandeman along with his sons Chad, and Switzerland based Leigh. Brethren Exposed have obtained copies of filed accounts for Bell River Homes for the year ending June 30th 2024, it is somewhat odd that though Bruce Hales is named as the appointed auditor, he didn't audit the accounts for Bell River Homes. The accounts were audited by Price, Waterhouse, Cooper (PWC). Leigh Sandeman is not only a director/founder of Bell River Homes, but also a director of Zenixspace. Zenixspace appears to be a direct replacement in Europe for the now sold Unispace business. The brethren members involved include Sebastian Parsons and Luke Robertson both involved in Covid Contracts, along with Rob Critchley the UK based 'business consultant' that is involved in many businesses linked to the Hales family. Other IncomeIt is unlikely that auditing two companies a year would be sufficient to maintain the Bruce Hales mega mansion in Sydney, however we have further information on the income of Bruce D Hales. Brethren Exposed have obtained a copy of grants awarded by a Gospel Trust, it shows that grants were provided on a monthly basis to Bruce Hales and total circa $16,000 per year. If this was repeated by other gospel trusts, we believe that the brethren members via the gospel trusts monthly care meetings, would be sending Bruce Hales an amount somewhere in the region of $5.5 million dollars each year! One could therefore argue that the line "ran by Sydney based businessman", should really say "ran by Sydney based charity sponger".
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