The former operations manager of a retaining wall company has been charged with fraud and forgery after months of investigations by Brisbane detectives.
A 35-year-old Birkdale man will appear in Wynnum Magistrates Court on August 8, facing four charges over offences alleged to have occurred between August 25, 2016 and November 9, 2016.
He is charged with dishonestly gaining a benefit through fraud, forgery, uttering and obtaining and dealing with identification information.
Police said the charges involved "a course of action" involving the unlawful use of a digital signature.
The charges follows allegations, reported by Fairfax Media on June 5, that an engineer reported to police his signature had allegedly been electronically copied on to other documents used by another company to falsely approve retaining walls.
The story also reported other allegations, not linked to the Birkdale man, after the construction industry had raised questions about collapsing retaining walls.
Queensland's Board of Professional Engineers has investigated those allegations, which Fairfax Media was told involved more than 300 cases of allegedly suspect certification documents.
Jon Gormley, principal legal officer with Queensland's Board of Professional Engineers, outlined the allegations before construction industry leaders earlier this month.
In construction work a Form 16 shows that a building certifier or a civil engineer had inspected the building work and certified it was satisfactory.
"And what I mean by that is, that the Form 16s have a name, a title and a signature which has been digitally added," Mr Gormley said.
"And the allegation by the registered professional engineer is that they had no professional association with that project, (they) haven't authorised it and (they) haven't issued that Form 16."
Fraud detectives subsequently investigated and laid charges.
Unconnected to these charges, the Board of Professional Engineers confirmed this week it had been made aware of other allegations of the "potentially fraudulent use" of engineer's signatures on forms submitted to gain approval for retaining walls.
"The Board of Professional Engineers Queensland is aware of further incidents of potentiality fraudulent use of registered professional engineers' signatures on forms 15 and 16," a spokesman said.
"The board is assessing these matters and is continuing to liaise with the police and other authorities."
"This is an active matter and inquiries are continuing."