Court throws out Henderson appeal
Christchurch businessman Dave Henderson has lost an appeal against conditions imposed upon his release from bankruptcy by the Official Assignee.
The conditions include a permanent ban on giving personal guarantees on loans and forbidding him from being a director until 2022.
His main ground for appeal was that the associate judge who imposed the conditions made an error in imposing them without first making a finding on his postbankruptcy conduct.
Henderson also claimed that in making this error the associate judge breached his rights to natural justice and displayed bias against him.
But the Appeal Court judges said there was a good reason for the associate judge not to take postbankruptcy conduct into account.
‘‘He was satisfied that the root causes of Mr Henderson’s bankruptcy were profound and endemic to his character.’’
The Appeal Court ruling outlined Henderson’s history of business and court dealings.
‘‘Included among them are 25 convictions for PAYE offences entered on four earlier occasions and 12 convictions for other taxation offences on seven separate occasions.
‘‘He has also been the subject of a number of money judgments in the District Court, High Court and the Taxation Review Authority.’’
The Appeal Court judges listed Henderson’s background of twice being bankrupted, first in 1996 and secondly in 2010 from failure to satisfy a $70 million debt.
‘‘However, it soon transpired that these debts were minimal when compared to Mr Henderson’s liabilities to others.
‘‘Claims by third parties against his bankrupt estate exceeded $160m. His final indebtedness was settled in the range of $100 million to $150m,’’ the judges said.
But the Appeal Court also noted a related cause for Henderson’s bankruptcy – failure to pay tax and diverting PAYE and GST payments.
Henderson had structured his personal affairs before and after the bankruptcy so he had no assets while providing personal guarantees for huge sums, the court ruling said.
He had not shown any ‘‘significant insight’’ into the recklessness of giving personal guarantees and the cause of his own bankruptcy.
The Appeal Court judges dismissed the accusation of bias, dismissed the appeal, and ordered Henderson to pay costs to the Official Assignee.