Migrants cry foul over new franchise deal

Green Power's locked and unstaffed Birkenhead headquarters. Photo / Paul Estcourt

Police are investigating an alleged scam in which people, mainly Chinese immigrants, claim to have been sold non-existent franchise businesses.

This comes as the Franchise Association prepares to send a submission to Parliament calling for tougher franchise controls.

It also follows a case being investigated by the Serious Fraud Office in which Green Acres area manager Keith Lapham is accused of selling bogus ironing franchises.

It is believed as many as 30 people may have been conned in the latest case, involving commercial cleaning franchise company Green Power.

The Herald has spoken to six Chinese immigrants who each paid $20,000 or more to Green Power for their franchises, which guaranteed a weekly income of $1000.

However, they say the only work they got was free cleaning arrangements the firm had with cafes, offices and retail outlets.

"There was no business, and we have all been conned," said Zhou Ping, an immigrant from Fujian, China, who bought two franchise businesses for $40,000 with his friend Shudeng Ye in April last year.

"I have not received a single cent in payment from Green Power, and all the hours I had put in cleaning a video shop and other retail outlets turned out to be just free services the company had offered them," he said in Mandarin.

The Herald has made repeated unsuccessful attempts to contact Green Power.

A Remuera lawyer, Winston Wang, who says he acts for the company, said it "did not want to be contacted".

The Companies Office website lists Chen Ji of Epsom as the sole director of Green Power Ltd.

However, Mr Wang said that he had never met Chen Ji and that he could not help the Herald to contact anyone at Green Power because it would breach a "confidentiality" understanding he had with his clients.

Robin Hassan, owner of Indian Sweets and Video, which used Mr Zhou's services, said the understanding he had with Green Power in engaging Mr Zhou's services was that it had been part of a "free trial offer".

"One of the Green Power reps dropped in and asked if I wanted to have my shop cleaned as part of a free trial, so I said, 'Why not?'

"They did a good job, but my business is small and I do not have the money to continue engaging them after the free trial ended."

Veena Kumar of Raven's Fire and Security in Papatoetoe said the cleaning service was used only because it was free.