Fraud complaint against car dealer
A fraud complaint against a prominent Christchurch car dealer has been lodged with police.
An investigation by The Press last year revealed Nigel Thompson, 43, quit his business Nigel Thompson Motor Company (NTMC) over accusations of fraud and misconduct in September.
It is understood the new owners have since laid a complaint with police, alleging Thompson defrauded them of several hundred thousand dollars.
While police are assessing the complaint Thompson is also under investigation by the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment and Inland Revenue.
Thompson’s business ran into financial trouble early in 2016. In November that year, former Kiwis coach Frank Endacott and his son Shane bought in, taking a 50 per cent share. Their cash injection rescued the business by helping with working capital and paying creditors.
It is understood the parting was precipitated by a forensic accounting report commissioned by the Endacotts, after which a confidential settlement with Thompson was reached.
Thompson is now the general manager of Gateway Motor Company. The car yard was formed in association with Aranui-based Celebration Centre church. The church, a registered charity, has an income of about $1 million a year from tithes and donations.
The Endacotts and Thompson declined to comment on Friday.
In an earlier statement Thompson said he was ‘‘unaware’’ of any ongoing investigations into his dealings and the commercial arrangement with the Endacotts was ‘‘ended by agreement’’. Any allegations of dishonest conduct were denied.
NTMC was placed in liquidation in March last year with creditors owed about $700,000 and unsecured creditors $520,000.
Thompson has at least 140 convictions, mostly for fraud in New Zealand and Australia. He was jailed by a Christchurch District Court judge for three years in 2002 after admitting 16 charges of using a document fraudulently and six counts of false pretences.
The $120,000 spate of offending included tricking an Auckland supermarket into giving him someone else’s lost credit card and altering a stolen passport, which he used to write cheques to the value of $40,000. He also systematically stole about $3500 from the bank account of a woman who thought they would marry.
Thompson claims to have become a gambling addict at 16. In mid-1999, when he was aged 25, he committed a string of dishonesty offences, including cheque and credit card offences, banking scams, theft and obtaining credit by fraud from hotels and motels.
As police closed in, he used a false passport and fled to Australia, where he got into trouble with similar offending. He served a jail sentence in Australia and was deported to New Zealand, where he was arrested and charged for the offences committed before he left the country.