Going by the grammar in the /echo I'd say he's trying to make a ban protection for himself. But I suppose we should wait for the official word from the gentleman.
I think he wants to ban only the nick like Artwerks!*@* or something like that. So maybe replace $1 by $+($nick,!*@*) in the ban. If we use $address, I didn't see any mask with nick!*@*