This is old news (late last year, actually).
Yep, he was unlicenced.
He was actually an aircraft engineer, however. Just not a licenced one (difference between a "LAME" and an "AME" in the Oz system) and therefore unable to "sign" for work. From what I've heard, he was actually reasonably competent, though I guess this is beside the point.
I believe that, with the engineers under pressure to get aeroplanes back on the line, he just started signing up work even though he wasn't supposed to. He got deeper and deeper into the whole thing and it got totally out of control. No-one bothered to check or ask about his licence quals or the fact that he'd never sat his exams!