Liquidator for firm with trail of alleged victims
A liquidator is winding up a Wellington company that allegedly swindled hundreds of thousands of dollars, but victims believe there may be more people owed money.
When word went out that the two company owners had bought international pet carriers and were about to leave New Zealand for the United States, those who say they paid tens of thousands of dollars for products that never arrived went to their Lower Hutt home to stop them leaving.
Last Monday, police charged a 36-yearold Lower Hutt man with obtaining control over $140,159 by deception, while a 35-yearold Lower Hutt man was charged with failing to carry out obligations in relation to a computer search. The investigation was ongoing, police said.
Yesterday, Judge Lawry Hinton remanded both men on bail with terms including that they surrender passports, and not engage in similar business except on professional advice for the winding down of a business. They were given interim name suppression.
Palliser Insolvency has been appointed to wind the company up.
Darren Whitaker-Barnett said he was $140,000 out of pocket for building products that never arrived. It meant his Motueka “dream home” was wrapped up and unfinished, awaiting crucial supplies.
A network of other victims had formed, he said, and he believed the amount owed by the company was in the hundreds of thousands of dollars.
He said the Wellington-based distributors took a 50% deposit to lock in the United
States company that built the supplies. Then the distributors took the remaining 50% to secure shipment to New Zealand. After that, the company cut off all contact, he said.
Whitaker-Barnett said he believed there would be more customers who had paid a deposit but were not aware that their supplies would not arrive. Name suppression needed to be lifted soon so those people could register as creditors, he said.
Tammy Lemire, who paid $31,000 for products that allegedly never arrived, understood many more victims had come forward since the men were stopped from leaving New Zealand. But there were probably many more who, due to the men getting name suppression, were yet to find out their ordered products were not coming, she said.
Chantelle Brader, allegedly out of pocket by about $20,000 for products that did not arrive, said she had registered with liquidators but doubted she would get the money back. “It sounds like they owe so much,” she said.