Directors 'knew payments not made'

Hundreds of Bridgecorp investors were told the company was suffering from a computer glitch or a bank error when they rang the phones off the hook regarding late interest payments on March 31, 2007, a court has heard.

Last week's depositions hearing to determine if Bridgecorp's five directors will face trial will continue in May.

Directors Bruce Davidson, Gary Urwin, Rod Petricevic, Rob Roest and Peter Steigrad face 10 Securities Act charges each relating to their roles in issuing a company's prospectus.

Witnesses including Bridgecorp staff, its legal counsel and contracted accountants have given evidence.

Bridgecorp's former Australian general manager Michael Jeffcoat told the court on Thursday the environment at the company in the lead up to its receivership in July 2007 was tense.

Jeffcoat said the phones rang constantly during the first few days after the payments were missed and staff stopped answering them. Staff were under pressure to bring money in to repay investors as they knew about the company's cashflow problem.

Investment services manager Christine Todd said Petricevic and Roest knew the payments hadn't been processed in time.

"They were well aware payments hadn't been made to investors. I told them."

Todd said she was "pretty stunned" when the payments did not meet the deadline.

"A lot of investors called that weekend. There was no money in the bank."

Todd said her staff received numerous heated and nasty phone calls from investors.

"It was a very stressful time. I tried to protect my staff."

Todd resigned on April 12, three months before the company went into receivership.