Mt Roskill agent Susan Lim told investigators she feared a colleague would poison her or blow up her car. Photo / Supplied
Mt Roskill agent Susan Lim told investigators she feared a colleague would poison her or blow up her car. Photo / Supplied
An Auckland real estate agent told investigators she feared a fellow agent would lay poison to kill her or rig a bomb to blow up her car.
But the agent at the centre of the allegations vehemently denies the woman's "ludicrous" claims.
Instead, he accuses her of making a vindictive,fabricated complaint against him to destroy his reputation and career, wrongly alleging he committed sexual assault and false imprisonment.
"If it's true I'd be in jail," former Māngere Bridge Realty agent Gary Stone told the Herald.
Stone, 65, a justice of the peace and former police officer, has just won the latest round in a protracted legal battle involving Mt Roskill agent Susan Lim and the Real Estate Authority (REA).
A just-released Real Estate Agents Disciplinary Tribunal decision shows Lim complained about Stone to both the REA and Qualifications Authority in December 2015.
The Royalty Realty agent alleged Stone had been "sexually abusing her and demanding cash" when she was a student and he was a manager at TAFE College in Auckland in 2008.
Her complaint claimed he had asked her to dinner, taken her to a car park, touched her back then refused to let her leave.
Lim further alleged Stone had interfered in her obtaining her real estate diploma.
She later filed a trespass notice against Stone on the grounds of "sexual assaults, theft, false statements, forged identity, and threatening for canceling my licence (sic)", the decision says.
A statement to REA investigators in December 2018 - viewed by the Herald - made further allegations against Stone.
"I was very scared that Gary Stone can lay some Poison or Bomb to my car or door handle to kill me (sic)," she wrote.
Lim's complaint was considered by the REA's Complaints Assessment Committee (CAC), which decided not to take the matter any further.
The Qualifications Authority also dismissed her complaint, referring her to police.
Lim told an REA facilitator she had not reported the incidents to police "as she did not have the evidence".
Former Māngere Bridge realty agent Gary Stone says claims against him by a fellow agent are vindictive and designed to destroy his career. Photo / Supplied
Stone was not informed of Lim's complaint and only learned about it "by chance".
The tribunal decision says he strongly disputed the allegations against him and made his own complaint to the REA about Lim in April 2016.
"The essence of his complaint was that Ms Lim's allegations were fabricated, her complaint was vindictive, and it was a deliberate attempt to use the complaint process to cause him humiliation, distress and embarrassment, and to damage his professional reputation."
Stone told investigators that during a face-to-face course assessment in 2008 about filling out a sale and purchase agreement, Stone decided Lim was "poorly prepared" and had no understanding of what was involved.
He stopped the assessment and gave her guidance on how to properly prepare, the decision says.
About two days later Lim asked him to dinner but he politely declined.
The CAC decided not to inquire into Stone's complaint but he appealed to the tribunal. The tribunal overturned the CAC decision - labelling it "plainly wrong" - and ordered it to reconsider Stone's complaint.
It did so but decided against laying misconduct charges against Lim.
The CAC decision found there was "no direct or written evidence" to support claims Lim had fabricated her complaint.
"The licensee has over time made complaints of reasonable detail and specificity," the CAC ruled.
"She has identified times and places, and the substance of what was said. The complaint is, on its face, not completely fanciful, cannot be dismissed as inherently implausible."
Representing himself against lawyers from Meredith Connell, Stone appealed again and the tribunal again upheld his challenge. It found the CAC's assessment of the case "amounted to an error of law or principle".
Rather than sending the matter back to the REA to consider, the tribunal would hold its own hearing to assess whether Lim should face misconduct charges relating to her complaint against Stone.
The tribunal noted the "almost entire absence of particulars" presented about some of Lim's allegations and said the "tenor" of her trespass notice may have relevance in assessing Lim's credibility.
However, in yet another legal twist, the REA has now appealed the tribunal decision to the High Court, further delaying the case.
Lim did not respond to requests for comment yesterday.
Stone told the Herald the tribunal "wanted to have a full hearing so they can determine basically who's telling the truth".
He was happy to give evidence and disappointed the case was being further dragged out.
"Quite frankly I'm a bit over it. It's gone on for four years. I'm now retired and out of real estate.
"I'm a civilian who's been slugged by a real estate agent and that's what really bugs me."
He reiterated he had done nothing wrong and said he was prepared to have Lim's claims aired publicly if it meant he could prove his innocence once and for all.
"Normal people don't do this. I expect better standards of behaviour from real estate agents than to go around making these ludicrous claims."
