They owe $2.5 million
But drag racer says he’s lost big bucks
LIQUIDATORS examining the collapse of a high-profile construction outfit run by a family of famous drag car racers have found the company owes almost $2.5 million.
Auzmet Panels Pty Ltd and Auzmet Pty Ltd, two of a group of companies linked to father and son Rob and Shane Tucker, went into liquidation in May, with the Queensland Building and Construction Commission cancelling their licences a month later.
Most of the debt is to 64 unsecured creditors, who are owed $2 million between them, including $515,460 owed to the Australian Taxation Office, while small and medium businesses are owed as much as $206,395 each.
Eleven former staff of the company are owed more than $450,000 in wages and entitlements.
A report by liquidator Christopher Baskerville claims unfair preference payments may have been made to some creditors, including the tax office, and that the company was trading while insolvent.
The report said the company was owed $1.64 million in progress claims and retentions, but much of that would likely be offset by counterclaims by debtors for work Auzmet did not complete.
Despite their troubles in Australia, Auzmet’s New Zealand arm has a multi-milliondollar contract to build the aluminium facades on the new $240 million convention centre in Christchurch.
Auzmet’s striking aluminium facades feature on Pacific Fair, the Lady Cilento Children’s Hospital, The Strand Coolangatta, Ikea North Lakes and car dealerships on the Gold Coast and in Springwood.
The businesses have an office in Melbourne and expanded in 2014 to the US where Shane Tucker, 33, is a pro stock racer for his dad’s Rob Tucker Racing team in the National Hot Rod Association series. Shane Tucker yesterday told the Gold Coast Bulletin he’d personally ploughed millions into the company and that claims by the liquidator were false.
“This is not the case. When the books were handed over Auzmet was owed $1.7 million and owed creditors $1.35 million,” he said.
“This didn’t include the $800,000 owed by a builder who intentionally dropped the scaffold on a project so Auzmet had no access to complete our scope, hoping we would fall over and they wouldn’t have to pay out the remaining contract value.”
Mr Tucker said his solicitors were “dealing with” his dispute with the contractor.
“No preferential payments were made from Auzmet. I made sure our creditors that were owed money on this particular project got paid directly from the builder.
“I personally lost millions with money loaned to the company.
Mr Tucker said the US and New Zealand branches of the business were separate entities and irrelevant to the Australian arm.
He said he had no plans to leave Australia and that his Auzmet Racing team was privately funded and would not be affected.
Shane Tucker was also a founding director of the charity Peace for the Children, which was fronted by television personality Tania Zaetta and folded after it was revealed it was not registered when it raised $29,000 in donations.
The charity was fined $50,000 and its former co-director Grant Hilton $10,000 after an investigation by Fair Trading, in which Mr Tucker was never charged. Ms Zaetta was cleared of all charges and played no role in the charity’s administrative matters.