Wheel clamp 'bullies' in liquidation

An Auckland wheel-clamping company, which last year was accused of bullying, has gone into liquidation after being unable to keep up with debts and is likely to leave some creditors out-of-pocket.

NZ Wheel Clamping Company stirred controversy last July for charging people $100 for parking for under two minutes in a carpark opposite a Mt Roskill School.

At the time Labour MP Phil Goff said the company was using "enforcement as a money-making racket" and that it was "fleecing people who can ill-afford it".

The company said that it was within its rights to make people pay the fees.

NZ Wheel Clamping - co-owned by Gordon Ward and Perrine Busby - was put into voluntary liquidation on Tuesday.

According to an initial report, filed with the Companies Office yesterday afternoon and prepared by liquidator Rachel Mason-Thomas, the clamping firm stopped trading at the end of February.

"The liquidators are advised that after a drastic reduction in business, the company was unable to keep current with its debts. The decision was therefore taken to place the company in liquidation," Mason-Thomas said.

Mason-Thomas' initial look at the company's books shows it is owed $181,446 and the report says a debt collector is being used to chase up this money.

The liquidator is also calling in a loan of $4269, the report says.

Even if all these debts are called in, the company is likely to end up owing creditors money.

"There's very likely to be a shortfall...even if we receive all of the debtors which is highly-unlikely in a liquidation setting then they'd be a shortfall anyway," Mason-Thomas told the Herald.

"It will all depend on how much is collected in from those debtors, it could be all of it, it could half of it, it could be none of it," she said.

The report says the company owes Inland Revenue $160,947 and unsecured creditors, including ANZ and ASB Bank, $71,752.

The liquidation is expected to be completed within three months.

Mobile viewers read the report here.