Banned salon boss' firms back on register

Yosef Aziz Chtouki/Joseph Brooks. Photo / NZME.

Two firms formerly directed by a controversial salon boss have been restored to the Companies Register ahead of a court case accusing him of managing businesses while banned.

Yosef Aziz Chtouki is defending charges for managing six companies while prohibited.

He is also accused of making false statements to the Companies Office and is due to go trial in the Auckland District Court next year. The charges, if proven, carry a maximum penalty of 5 years' jail.

In 2011 - when Chtouki went by the name Joseph Brooks - his management company was responsible for Hair Co and Beauty Co's staff in West Auckland.

Numerous customers of those New Lynn salons approached the Herald to report injuries, including two women whose hair fell out after chemical straightening.

Chtouki was later banned from acting as a director of companies for four years in November 2012.

Some of the accusations alleging that Chtouki ran a businesses while banned relate to Marx Beauty Management and Beauty Management New Lynn, both of which were struck off from the Companies Register in 2013.

The Registrar of Companies in November applied in the Auckland High Court for both these firms to be restored to register, arguing this would enable the criminal charges against Chtouki to be properly considered.

Lawyer for the Registrar, Kirsten Wakelin, argued there was a public interest in an order for restoration being made to avoid directors escaping liability by operating through struck-off companies.

Chtouki's lawyer Peter Davey, on the other hand, said the companies did not need to be restored for the prosecution to be pursued.

In his decision, Associate Judge Tony Christiansen ordered the two companies to be restored to register, saying it would be "just and equitable" to do so.

"In the court's view a proper purpose for restoration is served if it may prevent the use of struck off companies as a means to circumvent [the prohibition] notices. The criminal proceedings will provide the proper forum for assessing the Registrar's claims of unlawful behaviour," the judge said earlier this month.