Timeshare sales scuttle Baty
After surviving controversies over lie-detector tests and rubber ducks, it was timeshare sales that finally saw the curtain pulled on the colourful business empire of David Baty.
Mt Wellington resident Baty, 54, achieved national attention last year after demanding the winner of a fishing competition he promoted take a lie-detector test before he handed over the first prize of a $48,000 utility vehicle.
The standoff was resolved only when automobile maker Isuzu stepped in, two months into the controversy, to award the vehicle directly to the fishermen.
There was no similar happy ending for Classic Holidays NZ, of which Baty was sole director, with his timeshare sales franchise going under last month owing more than half a million dollars.
According to the Insolvency Register, Baty — also known as Dave or David Grant Baty — was also declared bankrupt on March 16 in the High Court at Auckland after failing to repay investors in his business owed $80,000.
Baty confirmed the liquidation and bankruptcy were related.
“The liquidation forced the bankruptcy due to our entire resources [going] into Classic trying to get it into profit,” he said.
The first liquidators’ report for Classic Holidays NZ, prepared by KPMG’s Vivian Fatupaito and Andrew Hawkes, said Inland Revenue, which was owed $264,223 in unpaid taxes, had tipped the company over. Employees of the company were said to be owed $37,206, and unsecured creditors a further $246,088.
The report said the company had operated as a franchise of Australian firm Classic Holidays Club and Baty blamed the collapse on “cash flow issues and issues with the Licensor”.
Baty said negative feedback online about the Australian operation had hamstrung his business.
“It is difficult to sustain a business when 50 per cent of the people you sell to cancel within seven days.”
He admitted he had made “stupid” decisions to keep the business trading despite the difficulties.
“I let my heart make business decisions due to the 30-odd staff we had and I became concerned about their employment rather than make the decision to close the business earlier.”
Meanwhile, Baty also claimed he was unfairly treated in prior reporting by the Herald on his business affairs.
He was referring to an investigation by the Herald that found Baty, as a trustee of Kidney Kids, was involved in a botched fundraising scheme that left the charity with 12,000 rubber ducks languishing in a Takinini storage unit.
A plan to raise money by dumping them into Auckland Harbour and let punters gamble on the results was left dead in the water by resource consent and Internal Affairs gaming regulations.