Five Star directors remanded

The finance company directors charged after the collapse of the Five Star group have had their case remanded until January.

Last month the directors of Five Star Consumer Finance - Marcus Macdonald, Anthony Bowden, Nicholas Kirk and de facto director Neill Williams - were charged with three offences apiece under the Securities Act and one each under the Financial Reporting Act.

The charges relate to false and misleading information in investment statements and the company's September 2006 registered prospectus.

The case was due in the Auckland District Court yesterday morning at 10am, but instead was pushed through in the early sitting and remanded until January 18.

These charges follow other Securities Act counts laid in July against the directors in their roles with Five Star Finance and Five Star Debenture Nominees. In this case they relate to securities being offered to members of the public without a registered prospectus, investment statement or trustee appointed.

The group's collapse in 2007 has left investors more than $90 million out of pocket. Earlier this year Macdonald, Bowden, Kirk and Williams were banned from being company directors for five years.

New Zealand Law Society records show Macdonald holds a current practising certificate and he continues to work as a lawyer from an office in Greenhithe.

The Auckland District Law Society lists his areas of practice as business, commercial, farms, fisheries, media, trusts, estates and wills.

Macdonald said: "I've kept the Law Society fully informed of everything and they have no concern about the matter."

Mary Olliver, acting general manager regulatory for the Law Society, said that the Lawyers and Conveyancers Disciplinary Tribunal was unlikely to act on the basis of charges against a lawyer.

THE ACTION

* Five Star Consumer Finance directors Marcus Macdonald, Anthony Bowden, Nicholas Kirk and de facto director Neill Williams are charged under Section 58 of the Securities Act and Section 41 of the Financial Reporting Act.
* Macdonald, Bowden and Kirk as directors of Five Star Finance and Five Star Debenture Nominees are charged under Section 59 of the Securities Act.
* The receivers of Five Star Consumer Finance have begun civil proceedings against the directors for breaches of duty owed to the company.
* Investors in Five Star Debenture Nominees are looking at action against the directors.
* The Serious Fraud Office is investigating possible breaches of the Crimes Act by Five Star Consumer Finance.