“There is no place for a person like Mr Sharma in the profession,” the decision states.
“His wrongdoing was not an isolated incident in an otherwise exemplary career. It involved a substantial sum of money…It is to Mr Sharma’s credit that he has admitted his misconduct and apologised, though that only occurred at the very last moment at the hearing.”
The tribunal noted that Sharma is in poor health and resides in a rest home, however, he did not meaningfully engage in the hearing at all.
“When he did, he sought adjournments. His ultimate acceptance of the charge came at the end of the road. He had no defence to the charge,” the tribunal said.
Instead of engaging with the hearing process Sharma issued a two-line apology to the 49 tenants he’d stolen from.
“I apologise for not depositing your bond money with the Residential Tenancy tribunal. I am truly ashamed of that. I know that I have caused you a lot of stress and pain and I wish I could take that back,” the letter reads.
“I hope you will forgive me. I intended to pay the money back, but because of my financial situation, I was not able to do that.”
Sharma no longer holds a real estate agents licence but if he did the tribunal said it would have cancelled it.
Disgraceful conduct
Tenants are required to pay a bond - usually to the value of two to four weeks’ rent - which is held by Tenancy Services in the event they damage the property or leave before their contract ends. Once they’ve exited the property and filled their contractual obligations, their bond money is returned to them.
Sharma was a director and shareholder of Property Management Out West Ltd, a property management company trading as Ray White Henderson. He ran the business through a franchise arrangement with Ray White New Zealand (Ray White).
As part of his business Sharma collected rental bond payments from tenants in connection with the management of properties. By law, he was required to forward those bond payments to Tenancy Services.
However, instead he pocketed nearly $100,000 worth of those payments and failed to lodge them with Tenancy Services.
His offending came to light in 2018 when he advised Ray White he was closing his business and going into voluntary liquidation. He reportedly owed creditors around $1 million at the time.
Shortly after closing his business multiple tenants and landlords contacted Ray White raising issues about their missing bond payments.
Eventually, a liquidator was employed to conduct a forensic audit, and the police and Real Estate Agents Authority were notified.
However, the police abandoned its investigation in 2020.
At the time, the liquidator estimated around 12 tenancy bonds hadn’t been lodged. But according to the tribunal’s finding last year, that figure eventually ballooned to 49.
Ray White ended up paying the money that was owed to the tenants from their own coffers - hoping to recoup it from Sharma following an investigation.
During the hearing last year the tribunal heard from a number of witnesses who gave evidence that Sharma was responsible for lodging all of the bond payments and was the only one with access to the company’s bank accounts.
This was not the first time Sharma has found himself in hot water for his professional conduct.
In 2014, he was reprimanded by the Real Estate Authority for failing to notify potential buyers of a property that there was meth contamination above recommended health levels.
Earlier in 2013, the authority found Sharma had engaged in unsatisfactory conduct in the promotion of another property he was tasked with selling.
And in 2010, Sharma was the subject of an Employment Relations Authority decision after telling an employee to “show him her nipples” as well as telling her to “f*** off and don’t come back”.
