An Auckland real estate agent accused of propositioning a woman in a McDonald's car park for "casual sex" has failed in his bid to throw out industry disciplinary action.
Gurpreet Singh faces a misconduct charge before the Real Estate Agents Disciplinary Tribunal, alleging his "conduct would reasonably be regarded by agents of good standing or reasonable members of the public as disgraceful".
It is alleged Mr Singh approached a woman he had not met before in the car park of Manurewa McDonald's in March 2013. He struck up a conversation with the woman, whose 9 and 12-year-old daughters were present, handing over his Harcourts business card and telling her to contact him if she was up for "casual sex, no strings attached".
He denies the allegation and says he wasn't at the McDonald's on the day, has never met or spoken to the woman and did not hand over his business card or make the sexual advance.
A Harcourts spokeswoman said Mr Singh was not employed by Harcourts at the time of the alleged incident.
He applied last year to strike the charge out because the allegations had nothing to do with his profession, but the tribunal disagreed.
"We accept that it is relevant that the defendant put his profession into the picture by presenting his business card to the complainant," says the tribunal's decision, which has just been made public.
His lawyer's strike-out application said the "alleged conduct had no connection to real estate work and is of a personal and sexual nature outside of any work context".
Further, Mr Singh's business card was given to provide contact details and not for any real estate purpose.
Mr Singh's lawyer argued his alleged action was perhaps "inappropriate", but not "disgraceful".
At the time, Mr Singh was not working, but the industry's complaints assessment committee prosecutor argued using a work business card could bring real estate into disrepute.
The tribunal decided it hadn't heard enough evidence to agree to a strike-out and ruled the matter should be heard in full.
"We accept that it is relevant that the defendant put his profession into the picture by presenting his business card to the complainant," it says.
Harcourts and Mr Singh have been contacted for comment.
Mr Singh is not the same Gurpreet Singh who works as a real estate agent for Ray White in Papatoetoe.
And it is not the same Gurpreet Singh who works for Barfoot & Thompson in Manurewa.