Call centre wound up owing $2m
Troubled Wellington call centre CallActive is being wound up, leaving creditors including former staff and Wellington ratepayers more than $2.1 million out of pocket.
Despite a plan to create 2000 jobs in the capital when it arrived in 2013, CallActive was put into liquidation in November 2015 due to unpaid tax.
At about the same time, its Australian-based directors, Rick Allan and Phillip Allan, were declared bankrupt.
In the final liquidators’ report, Colin Owens and David Vance of Deloitte said there were insufficient funds to pay creditors of the company.
This means there is no money to pay back the Wellington City Council, which invested $300,000 to help the firm set up its call centre in the capital, or former Call Active staff who are owed ‘‘substantial amounts [of] unpaid wages and holiday pay’’, or any other creditors.
In June, an investigation into the financial records prompted a call for some people associated with the company to pay up.
By December 15, settlements had been reached with the individuals.
However, there were no other avenues left to recover money, meaning the company would be wound up owing in excess of $2.112m.
‘‘No claims were submitted by employees and therefore we believe the actual loss to creditors would be significantly greater,’’ the report said.
Owens and Vance are now seeking to remove CallActive from the Companies Office register.
About 60 CallActive workers at the Willeston St office in Wellington were made redundant weeks before Christmas two years ago.
This came after its Australian branch folded a month earlier.
Liquidators froze the company’s bank account with ANZ, which held a small amount of money.
At the time of the company’s incorporation, the Wellington City Council loaned it $300,000, with the expectation the company would create up to 2000 jobs in the capital.
In November 2015, council chief executive Kevin Lavery said the council would have to ‘‘explore options for the possibility of recovering any of the funds’’ granted through the Economic Initiatives Development Fund Panel.
The funds were originally provided as a loan to help set up the company’s Wellington operations, he said.
CallActive was a family-owned business established in 1975 in Melbourne.