Pair 'tried to trick tribe'

Two men, one a former Tainui executive, have gone on trial for allegedly trying to trick the Waikato tribe into paying $24 million for five central Hamilton buildings - twice as much as they were worth.

Craig John Beecroft, aged 29, and Blair Ainsworth Kirk, 30, are accused of fraud in arranging the purchase of five buildings for $11.8 million and then attempting to sell them to Tainui for $24 million between 1997 and June 1998.

During his opening address in the Auckland District Court yesterday, Crown Solicitor Simon Moore said the pair were long-standing friends who tried to defraud Tainui by abusing Beecroft's position within the Waikato tribe.

Beecroft was the chief executive officer of Tainui Corporation Ltd, which was responsible for managing the tribe's properties.

In late 1997, Beecroft tried to buy the P & M Plaza, the Waipiri building, the New Centre building and the Railway building on Tainui's behalf.

All his offers were rejected because they were too low.

Blair Kirk, who worked as a mobile manager for Countrywide Bank and was moonlighting as a property developer, then approached the same property owners and successfully arranged to buy them.

In addition, Kirk arranged to purchase Hamilton's tallest building, the Tower Building, Mr Moore said.

"Blair Kirk's job was to secure agreements to buy these five properties, get the owners to sign up on conditional agreements and then, with Craig Beecroft's help, on-sell them to Tainui at about twice the price he had paid."

To avoid detection, Kirk set up a company called Paterangi Properties Waikato Ltd to give Tainui the impression it was dealing with a genuine vendor.

Kirk was to buy the properties, sell them to Paterangi Properties Waikato Ltd, which he also owned, which in turn would approach Tainui.

Reputable property developer Donal Macky agreed to front the Paterangi company for Kirk and deal directly with Beecroft but Mr Macky did not know the pair were working together, Mr Moore said.

In May 1998, Beecroft made a presentation to Tainui's finance committee on the merits of buying the five properties that Mr Macky had offered for sale.

After the meeting, the Crown alleged, Beecroft asked three members of the committee to sign documents, which were in fact sale and purchase agreements to buy the five buildings.

"Extraordinary as it may sound, none of them read the documents or asked any significant questions about what the documents were or why they needed their signatures," Mr Moore said.

Beecroft and Kirk also face a fraud charge relating to a $500,000 cheque which Beecroft arranged to be drawn from Tainui's account to fund a deposit on the Tower Building, which Kirk owed.

Mr Moore's opening address, before Judge Russell Johnson, will continue today.