Victims speak as window firm owners in court
Kate Rockpool had the accused men at her home for Christmas, she shared her food and wine with them.
Yesterday she sat in the public gallery of Hutt Valley District Court flanked by others who say they fell victim to the men in the dock accused of fraud.
A liquidator’s report into the men’s company shows it owes at least $3 million. Those who raced to their Hutt Valley home in March, when word got out that they were allegedly about to leave New Zealand, believe there will be more victims out there unaware. The men face a joint charge of obtaining $135,430.20 by deception.
The men’s name suppression was continued yesterday and, while the name of their company was not, it could point to their identity. However, it can be confirmed as a window company with customers around New Zealand. “I couldn’t be more disappointed and humiliated,” Rockpool said outside court of the men she counted as friends when she allegedly handed them $26,000 for windows that never arrived.
She said the pair came to her house just weeks ago and admitted that they had never ordered the products and they had done the same to others.
“If it hadn’t been for the other complainants who stopped them and called police, I would have never found them again,” she said.
Alex McCarthy placed her order on March 7 – just four days before the pair allegedly tried to leave New Zealand – and said she was now about $21,000 out of pocket.
Chantelle Brader and her Hutt Valley family spent $20,000 of savings on windows from the company to fix up her home, partly due to her asthmatic 4-year-old son. The windows never arrived, she said.
On March 11, police charged a 36-year-old Lower Hutt man with fraud and a 35-yearold Lower Hutt man with failing to carry out obligations in relation to a computer search.
In Hutt Valley District Court yesterday, Judge Nicola Wills withdrew the original fraud charges.
Both men now face a charge each of obtaining by deception $135,430.30 between
January 2023 and December 2023. They are due back in court in May. Outside the court, the pair refused to talk and got into a waiting car with their lawyer.
Adrian Hood and his partner, planning for retirement, were renovating their 1874 former vicarage in Naseby, Central Otago. After paying $45,000 for windows that never arrived, he said he contacted the United States company that was building them and was told they were never ordered.
The first liquidator’s report showed they owed at least $3m. The list of then-known creditors reached one-and-a-half A4 pages.