Disgraced Christchurch car dealer Chris Schwartz owes creditors more than $620,000

A former car dealer with a penchant for sending his disgruntled clients photos of excrement and pornography owes creditors around $620,000.

Christopher Schwartz, the bankrupt head of Christchurch car dealership ISeeCars Ltd, has been the subject of a string of recent complaints to the Motor Vehicle Disputes Tribunal from customers trying to recoup money he has swindled from them.

Now, a report from the Insolvency and Trustee Service, sent to NZME by one of Schwartz’s creditors, has revealed he owes more than $620,000.

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

Most were to finance companies, mechanics, vehicle suppliers and parts suppliers, with a few individuals scattered across the several-page list.

While it showed Schwartz had paid around $170,000 to creditors, there was a little more than $620,000 he still owed.

One of those owed money was Allied Auto Bodies in Christchurch, which does vehicle panel and paint repairs.

Manager Geoff Edge told NZME Schwartz had bought roughly 10 cars to his business for repairs but never paid for any of the work.

“We generally trust people to do the right thing,” he said.

“I don’t really think he had any intention of paying at all.”

Edge said Shwartz responded to Edge’s payment requests with photos of a toilet covered in excrement, which was a common theme in how Shwartz dealt with other similar requests.

“He should hope I don’t ever catch up to him.”

Most of Shwartz’s customers who have taken him to the Motor Vehicle Disputes Tribunal have won orders against him, though he claims to not have the means to pay them.

Many of the rulings detailed how Shwartz would dodge making payments, pocket customers’ refunds, or fail to acknowledge faults with vehicles he had sold.

He would then text or email those customers lewd photographs, including of genitalia.

The matter has been referred to the registrar of motor vehicle traders, although Schwartz has already surrendered his licence.

Still, rulings from the tribunal against him continue to steadily filter through.

One of those recent rulings detailed how Jan-Maree Pelvin purchased a Mazda Demio from Schwartz for her children to use and paid cash for it.

But about six months later the car was repossessed because there was finance owing on it.

Schwartz personally owes creditors $794,000, according to an insolvency report sent to NZME.

While Schwartz claimed this was disclosed to Pelvin, she denied that was the case and said she would not have bought the car if she had known.

Registered car dealers, like Schwartz was at the time, must disclose if finance is owed on a vehicle before they sell it.

Ten days later Pelvin paid a further $12,000 for the car when it was sold at Turners on behalf of the finance company.

“She has paid for the vehicle twice, which means that, for her, it has lost all its value. She will never recover the price paid for the vehicle twice,” tribunal adjudicator David Jackson said in the ruling.

Jackson said Schwartz insisted there was no security interest in the vehicle at the time of sale, but “in the same breath” claimed he had told her about it, noting he could not “have it both ways”.

Schwartz was no stranger to the system used to lodge security interests on vehicles, the Personal Properties Security Register.

The PPSR is an online noticeboard where a person can register a legal claim to personal property and check if any debt or obligation is attached to goods you 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 he had done to another Christchurch car dealer, Grant McLellan, and to Japanese vehicle-importing giant Nichibo, which acquired much of his stock when he went into liquidation.

The Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment, which runs the register, told McLellan after a series of complaints that “meaningful penalties” to prevent people from abusing the system were lacking.

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.