Ticketing firm funds frozen
A ticketing company run by one of the Highlanders rugby team’s key shareholders has had hundreds of thousands of dollars frozen by the High Court, after failing to pay bills relating to a large speedway event and a softball world cup.
The company is already under fire for not giving refunds for events cancelled due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Palmerston North City Council successfully applied in the High Court at Dunedin to have frozen funds held by Fortress Information Systems, which trades as Ticket Rocket.
Fortress’ sole director, Matthew Davey, is among a group of investors who took a five-year licence in 2016 to run the Highlanders, with the group getting a 77 per cent shareholding as part of the deal. A press release at the time described Davey as the head of the investment group.
Companies Office records show he owns 27 per cent of the Highlanders, but ceased as a director of the company behind the team on May 28.
According to Justice Rachel Dunningham’s recently released judgment, Ticket Rocket was the ticketing agent for the city council-owned Central Energy Trust Arena in Palmerston North and handled sales for the Teams’ Champs superstock event in February, which draws up to 16,000 people to the city from as far as the United Kingdom.
All revenue from ticket sales was put into a BNZ account owned by Fortress, with proceeds to be paid out to the council and Palmerston North Speedway.
Although $500,000 was paid to speedway, Fortress still owed $458,770 to speedway, $178,380 to the council and $30,450 to external ticketing outlets.
Fortress also owed $8360 to the council for sales of tickets to the Under-18 Men’s Softball World
Cup held at Colquhoun Park, Palmerston North, in February.
As part of its claim, the council said Davey had admitted payment was due and he failed to comply with an agreement to pay by the end of last month.
Davey was not represented by a lawyer in court, because the council’s application was made without notice.
Records filed by the council showed although Davey had
admitted payment was due Fortress had ‘‘cashflow problems’’.
The council wanted Fortress to show how much money was in accounts controlled by the company and for $676,000 to be frozen in the BNZ account for the next three months.
In an affidavit, council venue manager John Lynch said payment was usually made after an event without issue. The $676,000 was in a trust account, so should not be hampered by cashflow problems, Lynch said.
In his affidavit, speedway promoter Bruce Robertson said not being paid by the end of June, when funds would usually be paid in February, made him concerned about Fortress’ liquidity.
The judge said there was a real risk Fortress had or would use the $676,000 to meet cashflow requirements or debts unrelated to the council or speedway.
The order will only last until mid-july, and can be cancelled earlier if the money is paid.
The council is not alone in having problems with Ticket Rocket. Disgruntled Manawatu¯ ticket holders have told Stuff they have been unable to get refunds out of the company.
People were told it could take up to 60 working days to get refunds after large events were banned in March due to coronavirus, but many ticket holders have said they are hitting a brick wall when trying to communicate with Ticket Rocket.
Fortress’ company address is listed as an upstairs office in Stuart St, Dunedin. Attempts by Stuff to contact Ticket Rocket have so far been unsuccessful.