Convicted receiver two years late with Dynamic Meats job

The receiver of a company that once operated from this Hastings building is stalling its liquidation. Photo/Warren Buckland

Two years after being appointed receiver of a Hastings business, bankrupted Geoff Martin Smith is yet to file a report due two months after his appointment.

In the latest Liquidators' Fifth Report, liquidator Peri Finnigan of McDonald Vague said it was in correspondence with the Insolvency and Trustees service as well as the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment "in relation to the issues surrounding Mr Smith's appointment" to Dynamic Meats (2014) Ltd. The report said all Dynamic assets were controlled by Mr Smith and it could not proceed with the liquidation until Mr Smith's receivership was completed and access granted to the company's books records.

The report said Mr Smith was adjudicated personally bankrupt on a creditor's petition in Hamilton in February this year.

He was also made bankrupt in 1989 and 2008.

Last year the High Court in Auckland said Mr Smith had a history of dishonesty, including convictions for tax evasion, theft, fraud and falsifying documents. It was satisfied Mr Smith fabricated a document for a company he was liquidating and ordered he return $540,402.

Mr Smith was appointed by Russell Green, an America's Cup lawyer for Team New Zealand.

Mr Green said he was acting to protect his interests as landlord when he appointed Mr Smith. He said he did not know Mr Smith and had no knowledge of his convictions. Mr Smith was one of two people recommended by an "experienced professional insolvency practitioner".

"He said he had been on the receiving end of Smith hounding him on a particular company liquidation/receivership and found him to be aggressive and effective in getting the job done," Mr Green told Hawke's Bay Today.

Mr Smith's record has prompted lawyers to call for liquidators to be regulated.

In 2008 Mr Smith was jailed after being found guilty on 94 charges of tax evasion totalling more than $500,000.

In 2000 he was sentenced to nine months in prison for theft and fraud while operating the Waikato-based New Zealand Free Ambulance Service and with his wife, Barbara, was found guilty of stealing $6593 paid to them for first aid courses they ran for St John.