Record fine for Steel & Tube after misrepresenting steel mesh products

AUCKLAND: Steel & Tube Holdings has been ordered to pay a record fine for making misleading representations about steel mesh products that fell short of testing standards.

Auckland District Court Judge Warren Cathcart yesterday fined the company $1.89 million on 24 charges under the Fair Trading Act after an earlier guilty plea. The charges, brought by the Commerce Commission, related to conduct spanning four years, where Steel & Tube sold about 480,000 sheets of steel mesh for $24 million from 482 batches.

Steel & Tube misled the public with representations that the mesh met an Australia/New Zealand standard for reinforcing steel when it did not, and that the batches had been independently tested when they had not.

The judge started at a $2.9 million fine for the company, discounted to reflect Steel & Tube’s cooperation and early guilty plea.

‘‘Steel & Tube’s representations arose because senior management of a large company failed to put in place adequate procedures and oversight,’’ commission chair Mark Berry said in a statement.

‘‘The penalty imposed today demonstrates that this is unacceptable and highrisk conduct that undermines the confidence of the public in construction products being sold into the market.’’

The company pleaded guilty in August last year, three days before reporting a 22% slump in annual profit.

The result acknowledged the prosecution and included costs, penalties and fines that could be imposed within its $4.8 million of provisioning. — BusinessDesk