Former Christchurch car dealer Chris Schwartz sent customer photos of excrement, genitalia

Christopher Schwartz from iSeeCars Ltd in Christchurch has had more Motor Vehicle Disputes Tribunal rulings made against him. Photo / Google Maps / Supplied

A former car dealer with a history of sending explicit pictures to disgruntled customers has now been caught sending photos of genitalia to a woman attempting to recoup money from his company.

Christopher Schwartz, the bankrupt head of Christchurch car dealership ISeeCars Ltd, was taken to the Motor Vehicle Disputes Tribunal last year after he pocketed a $15,000 refund owed to a customer and then sent them photos of excrement when they complained.

This week, two further rulings by the tribunal have been published relating to Schwartz taking money from customers who had purchased mechanical breakdown insurance from him. The rulings state the policies were never lodged.

One of the customers, Jesimin Castel, found extensive rust with her newly purchased Nissan Dualis and ISeeCars promised to pay for the repairs.

However, instead of meeting the costs, Schwartz “embarked on an email and text message campaign of abuse”, one ruling stated.

Among the abuse, he sent Castel photos of excrement as well as genitalia.

But Schwartz had told the tribunal it was Castel – not him – who had been sending the explicit messages, which the tribunal rejected.

Tribunal adjudicator David Jackson found the rust in the vehicle was so bad that it should not have been issued with its latest Warrant of Fitness.

Jackson also found Schwartz had failed to lodge the insurance policy Castel had purchased.

He ordered Schwartz to pay her $3000 for the cost of the repairs to the car as well as a refund for the policy.

The second ruling stated Bailey Cottle purchased a $37,500 BMW from the dealership in July last year, along with a mechanical breakdown insurance policy.

However, when he undertook some repairs on the vehicle and attempted to claim on the policy he found it was non-existent.

Cottle told the tribunal that when he complained to IseeCars, he was given the “runaround” for several weeks.

He later received an email headed “proof of warranty” but Schwartz had attached a picture of a menu from a Mexican restaurant.

Schwartz emailed a picture of a restaurant menu when asked for proof of a vehicle's breakdown insurance. Photo / Supplied.

Schwartz followed up with a picture of a toilet bowl containing excrement.

“He was great to deal with when he was trying to get money out of me, and as soon as I started asking questions about the insurance it turned nasty very quickly,” Cottle told NZME.

“Basically, he gave me the runaround for a few weeks before then eventually admitting they never lodged the policy.”

He described the emails sent to him as disrespectful.

“They just didn’t care … You’re not a person to them, you’re just a dollar sign.”

Cottle took the dealership and Schwartz to the tribunal and won.

Adjudicator David Jackson ordered Schwartz to pay Cottle $6000 for the cost of the three-year breakdown, plus a further $649 for a radio replacement that the company promised to install but never did.

Jackson said he was “comfortably satisfied” that Cottle was misled or deceived into thinking the vehicle came with insurance.

“There is no evidence that the trader took any steps to obtain the MBI policy and when it was asked for the same, it engaged in obtuse and childish correspondence,” Jackson said.

“I will draw the inference that it sold the vehicle without pause or thought to obtain the MBI policy. The same applies to the radio and map conversion, which was another misleading promise which it had no intention of keeping.”

Schwartz told the tribunal his company was in receivership, about to enter liquidation and was insolvent, and that he was personally bankrupt.

He also submitted there was nothing wrong with the BMW when it was imported for sale.

When NZME emailed Schwartz for comment, he responded that the request was “boarder [sic] line harassment”.

In the rulings, Jackson noted that Schwartz had engaged in similar behaviour, as evidenced by the tribunal’s earlier ruling.

According to that ruling, Johannes and Chizelle Cilliers acquired $15,000 in finance for a 2015 Nissan Skyline that they never received because a fault was discovered with it before it could be delivered.

After nearly a month, the car still hadn’t arrived and the Cilliers repeatedly tried to get a refund.

Schwartz refused to give the money back despite it being confirmed the car couldn’t be fixed.

Schwartz then wrote to the company that sold him the vehicle, Autofleet Capital Ltd, and told them he’d refunded the Cilliers their $15,000, which he had not. Autofleet Capital then refunded Schwartz $15,000.

After the tribunal’s hearing on the matter, Schwartz sent the Cilliers an email stating: “Please see attached paid in full. Have a fantastic great day, I split it in two payment parts.”

But instead of payment, it was two explicit pictures of excrement.

The Cilliers received two photos of faeces by email from Schwartz after taking him to the Motor Vehicle Disputes Tribunal. Photo / Supplied

Schwartz used similar wording in an email to Cottle, and has previously claimed that the explicit images were a “terrible prank amongst staff”.

Another former customer, Ian Tilley, told NZME he’d commissioned Schwartz to sell his Skoda on his behalf when he moved overseas.

The car sold, but Tilley has only received a portion of what it sold for and when he chased Schwartz about it, he received a photo of a naked man.

Schwartz has also been accused of using the Personal Properties Security Register to bully and harass the regional representative of a vehicle importer that cut ties with him last year.

The PPSR is an online noticeboard where a person can register a legal claim to personal property, and check any debt or obligation attached to goods a person may wish to buy.

However, no evidence is required to register a security interest in a vehicle, or even declare yourself the owner, which is what Schwartz has allegedly been doing to Grant McLellan’s personal vehicles, and an unknown number of vehicles that vehicle importer Nichibo took from his dealership when he went into receivership.

A licensed motor vehicle trader cannot sell a vehicle that has finance owing on it, meaning the cars are held hostage while the finance interests are challenged.

Jeremy Wilkinson is an Open Justice reporter based in Manawatū covering courts and justice issues with an interest in tribunals. He has been a journalist for nearly a decade and has worked for NZME since 2022.