No cash for big catch irks fishers
Winners from a botched Coromandel fishing competition say they haven’t been paid prize money despite assurances from organisers that the top fish would collect the cash.
They join a growing list of disgruntled fishers considering further action against the previously bankrupt man behind the competition.
But he says he’s already gone $20,000 into debt to make good on prizes.
The Kings of the Coromandel Fishing Competition, held in Coromandel last week, had advertised $75,500 in prize money, but only four $10,000 first placings were paid out.
A shortfall in entries meant the competition, as per entry conditions, did not pay placegetters.
But Steve Cullen and Kevin Oglesby, who placed first in their respective categories which had advertised prizes of $3000 have also not been paid out.
On Monday, Bobbie Opperman spoke to Stuff about how he only received stickers and keyrings as part of a much lower valued prize compared to the advertised $5000 he could have won for hauling in the second heaviest Kingfish.
A third category, which advertised first place winnings of $3000, was also not paid out.
The event rules stated: ‘‘The ticket sales make up most of the prize money. So if not enough tickets are sold, only the first place cash prizes will be paid out (sic)’’. The event drew 487 competitors. Cullen, winning the John Dory category, received the advertised rod and reel but no money.
He said there was a group of about 10 placegetters who were not paid out looking at taking further action.
Rudi Mare’s third placing in the Kingfish category could have given him $3000 in winnings and Abbie Robinson, who placed third in the Kahawai category, could have won $1000.
Opperman said he had called the police on November 27 to complain, but was told they were not interested as it was a civil matter.
The event was ‘‘definitely not a scam’’ but rather an honest overestimation of what the event would be.
Organiser Wade Adams
He was now looking at going to the small claims tribunal.
When asked by Stuff, Police said it was a civil matter.
One of the organisers, Wade Adams, said the event was riddled with issues from its early planning days.
On Friday, Adams, who was declared bankrupt earlier this year, told Stuff
Adams said the event took seven months to plan and some sponsors had pulled out in the early days.
There had been issues with getting replacements to be monetary rather than product sponsors.
He said the number of entries was actually 472 – lower than the 487 he had originally told Stuff on Monday – but their revenue from entries was $62,000, ‘‘which meant 50-something didn’t pay or turn up’’.
On Monday afternoon, the pair released a break-down of the budget to the event’s Facebook page.
However, Adams’ partner, Megan Brown, who he organised the event with, said they were ‘‘not exactly showing the budget, but just showing kind of how we worked around it and things’’.
She said this was because ‘‘obviously we can’t show everything that we’ve done because that’s wrong of our sponsors and they won’t come back kind if we put them out there’’.
Adams said he made roughly what Bobbie Opperman got: ‘‘I think I got a couple of stickers.
‘‘That was literally it, besides $20,000 that I now owe Dad and the family – but that’s the numbers.’’
He said he and Brown had to get a loan from his family to pay for even the four $10,000 prizes as ticket sales and monetary sponsors had not covered those costs.
The pair both said they would soon be making another Facebook post that would make things clearer.
Adams said they felt as though they had failed and the idea of the competition was to provide New Zealand with a fishing event not done in the country before.
Adams said perhaps major spot prizes should have been redistributed to placegetters.
When asked if he would apologise to the non-paid out placegetters, he said he had and had tried to deal with it ‘‘as PC as possible’’.