Attention gets too hot for 'business coach'

Shane Wenzel. Photo / Getty Images

A key figure in a taxpayer-funded property scandal has been accused of verbally threatening three Members of Parliament and pushing or snatching at two media representatives.

Bankrupt Shane Wenzel describes himself as the "business coach" advising a small group of directors who run about 100 linked companies under investigation by a string of agencies.

Some of those companies are believed to have been funded by money which should have gone into a taxpayer-funded training college. Case Boreham Associates was paid $1.2 million a year to train teacher aides but went into liquidation.

Wenzel is facing Serious Fraud Office charges over property deals connected to those companies, and questions from the Insolvency Office over allegedly being involved in managing those companies while a bankrupt. He has denied those charges; a judgment is expected this month.

On Wednesday, Wenzel was warned by police after trying to take a camera from a Herald on Sunday photographer and physically shoving a reporter. He then tried to strip a mobile telephone from the hands of a reporter as he tried to call police.

The incident followed complaints in Parliament that Wenzel had verbally threatened National Party MPs Katherine Rich and Judith Collins. According to Collins, Wenzel contacted Collins' office demanding to speak with the MPs, then said he would release a document containing "mud" about statements Rich had made.

Collins and Rich said it was inferred from Wenzel's approach that he was "trying to intimidate the politicians to prevent them from probing deeper".

And National MP Bob Clarkson has also complained after aggressive calls from Wenzel, who was upset the MP was helping students from Case Boreham Associates.

The Herald on Sunday was present at the Papakura District Court to cover a dispute between Associated Accountants, a company Wenzel is associated with, and a former investor, Phyllis Maka. A photographer who took pictures of Wenzel was then shoved by him when he tried to rip the camera from her hands.

A reporter then went outside to tell Wenzel that any physical abuse would result in a call to police. It was then that Wenzel began pushing and barging the reporter.

When 111 was called, Wenzel sprained the reporter's hand while trying to take the phone. Police arrived, took a complaint and warned Wenzel about his behaviour.