Files show Act MP retains ties to husband's business

By EUGENE BINGHAM

She says one thing, but official records suggest another.

Since the latest round of trouble for publisher Alister Taylor, his de facto wife, Act list MP Deborah Coddington, has insisted that she has no business links with him.

Mr Taylor is facing court action in New South Wales, where authorities have accused him of duping people into buying "vanity" publications which have not been delivered.

The allegations are similar to claims made by British trading authorities, who said in 2001 that a company run by the couple had not delivered books that people had paid to be included in.

Ms Coddington has maintained that "I am not connected in any way with the businesses associated with Alister Taylor".

Companies Office records show Mr Taylor is a director of five companies. Ms Coddington is a co-owner of one of those companies and was a shareholder in three others.

The shares in those companies were transferred into a company co-owned by Ms Coddington's daughter and Mr Taylor this year.

One of the companies, Roger Jamieson Ltd - previously known as Who's Who in New Zealand and New Zealand Who's Who Aotearoa - is owned 50-50 by Mr Taylor and Ms Coddington.

Records filed in January notified the Companies Office of changes to the ownership structure for three companies part-owned by Ms Coddington - Waiura Holdings, New Zealand Who's Who Publications and Roll of Honour Publications.

The new owner of the three companies was Kew Holdings, the shares of which are held by Mr Taylor and Ms Coddington's daughter from a previous relationship, Briar McCormack.

When the shares were transferred from Ms Coddington to Kew Holdings is not clear from the records.

A document filed by lawyers on behalf of New Zealand Who's Who Publications in June last year listed Ms Coddington as a joint owner of the company with Mr Taylor.

For Waiura Holdings, a hand-written note on one record filed in May last year said Ms Coddington had resigned as a director and transferred her shares to Calum Ian Innes, although no date was given.

Mr Taylor signed a document listing Ms Coddington as a 50-50 shareholder of Roll of Honour Publications in March last year, although he has been reported as saying this was a mistake and he would notify the Companies Office.

Last year, Ms Coddington, told a Herald reporter it was a mistake that she was listed as a shareholder of New Zealand Who's Who Publications.

The Herald had asked her about her involvement with the company after the Employment Tribunal ordered it to pay $2999 in wages arrears to a former employee, Bernard Moore. Mr Moore said this week that he had still not been paid.

Ms Coddington has lived with Mr Taylor since the late 1970s. A profile this year in North & South magazine - for which she worked as a journalist before entering Parliament last year - said the couple fled to Russell in the Far North when angry creditors began to close in on them over Mr Taylor's publishing business.

They ran a restaurant there before Mr Taylor was adjudged bankrupt in 1985.

Media reports suggested last week that Ms Coddington and Mr Taylor's relationship was rocky, in part because of his business woes.

But in the North & South story, Ms Coddington said the couple had been through tough times before.

"When he went bankrupt and we moved to Russell everyone said, 'She'll leave him, she won't be able to do without her Charles Jourdan shoes and her Guerlain perfume'," she said. "Well, I didn't."

* Email Eugene Bingham