Blue Chip co-founder still smiling

Mark Bryers in Auckland. Photo / Herald on Sunday

Blue Chip co-founder Mark Bryers stayed in one of Auckland's most luxurious hotels and avoided angry creditors when he made a brief return to New Zealand last week.

A smiling Bryers was in Auckland to face charges relating to his company Swordfish Lodge Management Ltd.

The business, which is in liquidation, managed the Gulf Harbour Country Lodge on Whangaparaoa Peninsula. Its management has been taken over by Blue Chip investors who have already lost more than $1 million.

Bryers is also expected to face more than 100 criminal charges laid against him for breaches of the Companies Act after a six-month investigation.

However he escaped a throng of Blue Chip investors, process servers and media waiting outside the Auckland District Court on Friday after the case was adjourned until March 27.

Last week the Herald on Sunday revealed Bryers has continued to profit from one of his collapsed companies, Gibbston 12 Ltd, with rental income owed to creditors paid into his personal bank account.

The paper can also reveal a number of Auckland homes owned by that company are leaky, revelations are contained in a batch of new liquidation reports.

The documents also indicate the possibility of a new legal summons after Bryers failed to acknowledge repeated requests to assist the investigation into the collapse of his business empire.

Liquidators for PKF Corporate Recovery and Insolvency also noted that 13 residential properties around Auckland, owned by the company, were involved in leaky building claims, or had been subject to claims in the past.

On Friday angry investors, and process servers - at least one of which involved bankruptcy proceedings against Bryers - vowed to be back on March 27 when he is due back in court.

More than 2000 investors lost more than $80m after the property investment group collapsed early last year.

Many face losing their homes and the Serious Fraud Office and Commerce Commission are also investigating.

West Auckland Blue Chip investor Tony Collingwood, who is surviving with Salvation Army food parcels, said Bryers should take responsibility for what had happened to investors.

Collingwood and his wife invested with Blue Chip after attending a free seminar. Debt-free, they decided to buy three Blue Chip apartments in Auckland City.

Since Blue Chip's collapse early last year the couple and their 9-year-old twin daughters have been left on the poverty line and face bankruptcy.

"If we didn't have a flat under our own home we would be out on the street," said Tony. "Our kids can't do anything. We haven't even paid their school fees. We're getting food parcels from the Sallies - that's how we are surviving."

Collingwood is among a group of investors who, with the help of barrister Paul Dale, will take a case against Blue Chip-related companies in May.

"If we lose the case we will be going bankrupt - everyone will."

While Collingwood waited with other investors outside the court, Bryers was just a block away.

After checking out of the five-star SkyCity Grand Hotel, where he stayed on Thursday night, he towed his suitcase down Queen St and disappeared into Qantas House, the office block from where the former Blue Chip empire was run.

He spent the morning at the office of accountant John Lowther, whose company Lowthers Ltd worked closely with Blue Chip. John Lowther is a former director of Blue Chip-related companies.

Bryers is believed to have flown back to Sydney later on Friday where he lives in the luxurious Quay West Suites overlooking Sydney Harbour in the Rocks. From there he can walk to his office on the 34th floor of the AMP Tower near Sydney's Circular Quay.

Also waiting for Bryers outside the court on Friday was an angry Maree Aitkenhead, whose partner, 73-year-old Blue Chip co-founder Bob Bangerter, is facing bankruptcy over unpaid rent on space in Qantas House rented by Blue Chip.

Bangerter learned last June that Sir Bob Jones, the building's owner, planned to pursue him for $394,000 plus costs after he had signed a personal guarantee. Bangerter sent an email to Bryers the same day but did not receive an immediate response.

That month Bryers went on a luxury tour of Scottish golf courses, including St Andrews, to celebrate his brother's 60th birthday. Two months later Bangerter received a reply from Bryers which read "Bob - that's life. Mark."

Aitkenhead said Bangerter's three Blue Chip investment properties went to mortgagee sale last month.