Riled developer takes on Baycorp

By RICHARD PAMATATAU

An Auckland property developer has taken a case against debt collector Baycorp Advantage to the Human Rights Review Tribunal, claiming the company is giving parties unauthorised access to private financial information about him and other New Zealanders.

Stuart Herron said his ability to borrow money and his reputation had suffered after a number of organisations undertook credit checks on him through Baycorp's database.

He said he was shocked to discover unauthorised searches of his record and believed there might be grounds for other Kiwis who have been affected by Baycorp and its practices to take a class action lawsuit against the company.

Individuals and businesses searching the Baycorp register must have good reason for doing so - and with a few exceptions, written permission.

The most common reason for searches is running credit checks before lending money or giving credit to customers.

Herron said that a number of companies, including Speirs Group, Westpac bank, Nationwide Business Services and Link Services, had not gained permission before carrying out searches.

"I never even met with some of the organisations who have looked at my information," he said.

"No one minds if you give permission, but it seems to me there are very poor processes with Baycorp on how it checks who is authorised to look things up."

Herron said he complained to the Privacy Commissioner's office, which found breaches of rules governing the gathering of information. Searching of Baycorp's register is covered by the Privacy Act.

But the commissioner's office also found Herron had suffered no "harm" as a result of the searches.

"It is harming me because I have people with inaccurate information about me and postings against my name and it affects my ability to borrow money."

Herron said he was considering a lawsuit and had rejected an out-of-court settlement offered by Baycorp.

While Herron did not get any substantial support from the Privacy Commissioner's office, it is understood the case and others like it have resulted in its fast-tracking work on the long-awaited Credit Information Privacy Code. The proposal aims to give thousands of Kiwis assurances that the records held on them by agencies such as Baycorp Advantage and Dun and Bradstreet are accurate.

In particular the new code will address what are seen as inaccuracies in the information Baycorp or other agencies hold and by whom it can be accessed.

At the core of the problem are the processes used to check both the information that is available and who has a right to look at it.

However, once the code is issued it will not be enforced until next year at the earliest, and even then in stages.

It is possible agencies such as Baycorp may have to put in new computer systems to meet some of the reporting and protection requirements under the code.


A survey of Baycorp Advantage's information was undertaken by Australian consumer watchdog Choice this year.

It asked 58 subscribers to get copies of their reports.

Of the 58, 50 had reports and 34 per cent of that group found mistakes in their information.

Baycorp Advantage managing director Andrew Want said there were thousands of credit searches every day at Baycorp, and it was impossible to check the legitimacy of every search. Baycorp carried out random checks.