Bella Vista Homes' director Danny Cancian, pictured shortly after the company's liquidation, is defending charges brought against him by Tauranga City Council. Photo / File
Bella Vista Homes' director Danny Cancian, pictured shortly after the company's liquidation, is defending charges brought against him by Tauranga City Council. Photo / File
A $1.3 million payment to a cousin, death threats, a company on the brink of collapse and aggressive cliff-top threats were among many revelations heard during cross-examination of Bella Vista Homes' boss Danny Cancian in court today.
The Bella Vista Homes Limited director sat in the dock at Tauranga District Court as one of the first defendants to give evidence in the judge-alone trial as part of the defence's witness list.
The company, Cancian, plus The Engineer Ltd, its director Bruce Cameron, and bricklayer Darrel Joseph are defending a raft of charges following the evacuation of 21 houses in various stages of completion in a sub-division in March 2018.
The charges were brought by the Tauranga City Council and relate to the defendants allegedly carrying out building works which were not in accordance with the Building Act, in particular, a building consent.
The court has already heard from witnesses saying they believed Cancian to be the licensed building practitioner responsible for the work on the homes, which were subsequently evacuated due to concerns the buildings were non-compliant and unsafe.
Cancian told the court today that although he was the licensed building practitioner in building or carpentry, he trusted others to do a good job of their work on the homes and his role was "more of a scout, looking for subdivisions to keep the company rolling".
He told the court he just wanted to build homes for people and was a "problem-solver" but had been let down by people he trusted to do a good job. He referred to his 35 years' of building experience at least three times during the course of the morning.
Then under cross-examination, Cancian was questioned by prosecution counsel Richard Marchant why he paid his cousin, and former Bella Vista Homes' co-director and shareholder, Daniel De Martin $1.3m in mid-2016 when the company could not afford it.
"He had to get out of the company. I was afraid because he gave me death threats. We had people turning up to site with hammers to threaten him because he was involved with methamphetamine," Cancian said.
"I was afraid for my family, all right?"
Marchant continued questioning Cancian on how he could afford this when liquidators had said the company at that time was insolvent but Cancian said the liquidators were wrong.
The court heard the company owed $4.5m, which Cancian also disputed.
When asked what happened to the money, if the company wasn't failing, Cancian told Marchant he would have to look that up on Xero accounting software to find out.
Some homes in the Bella Vista development were left incomplete when Tauranga City Council ordered an evacuation affecting 21 homes. Photo / File
Marchant put to Cancian: "The reason you paid $1.3m was to get money out of your failing company ahead of time ... because it was failing, you couldn't afford to seek amendments or delays with RFI [requests for more information] from council.
"You need to because the company caving in around you, isn't that right?
"Because that's the setting we need to look at this case in. It's about what you knew and why you didn't do anything about it. The reason you didn't want to seek amendments was that you didn't want to go to the cost of all of that, and that was largely because you ran out of cash."
Cancian said other witnesses who had given evidence against him were either lying or mistaken.
Marchant then referred to an on-site meeting between council inspectors, engineers and Cancian on Aneta Way, in which Cancian is alleged to have physically intimidated a geo-technical engineer Michael Trigger.
"So if your honour heard of you behaving aggressively threatening, advancing close to a man next to a cliff... a bank. You wouldn't have a problem with that?"
Cancian replied: "I didn't behave in that manner that you're talking about."
Hours earlier under questioning from his own defence counsel Bill Nabney, Cancian referred to his behaviour at that meeting as being more "enthusiastic" than the average person.
The court heard how Cancian had in interviews, previously presented in court, likened himself to successful building developer Peter Cooney, of Classic Builders.
Because that's the setting we need to look at this case in. It's about what you knew and why you didn't do anything about it.
Marchant: "You're no Peter Cooney are you? In terms of the way you run your business. You were a director, LBP [licenced building practitioner], acting while directing, selling properties, negotiating with owners and designs, putting your own bracing material in the building works. You were no director sitting at a desk in your ivory tower somewhere were you?"
Cancian replied: "I was a director at a desk, yes, but I wasn't on-site, no."
Earlier in the day, Cancian said he spent 90 per cent of his time trying to get extra subdivisions and left the responsibility of on-site work to the project managers and others.
The trial originally began in March but was put on hold during the Covid-19 lockdown, resuming again on June 29.
