Steel & Tube Holdings has been fined a record $1.9 million for making false representations about steel mesh products used in earthquake strengthening.
Auckland District Court Judge Warren Cathcart today sentenced the company to a fine of $1.89 million on 24 charges under the Fair Trading Act after an earlier guilty plea.
The charges, brought by the Commerce Commission, related to conduct spanning four years, where Steel & Tube sold about 480,000 sheets of steel mesh for $24m from 482 batches.
Steel & Tube misled the public with representations that the mesh met an Australia/New Zealand standard for reinforcing steel when it didn't, and that the batches had been independently tested when they hadn't.
The judge started at a $2.9m fine for the company, discounted to reflect Steel & Tube's cooperation and early guilty plea.