Davy's 20 years of deception exposed

5.15pm

Sacked Maori Television Service boss John Davy has a long history of talking his way into plum jobs, being found out and leaving debts behind, says a Canadian newspaper.

In a weekend feature, the Globe and Mail says the only credential on Mr Davy's impressive curriculum vitae that could be verified was a one-day course in hockey refereeing.

The Canadian globetrotter was sacked as MTS chief executive last month after he was found to have faked credentials, including an MBA from a fictitious American business school.

The Globe and Mail said court documents and interviews with a dozen of his former colleagues showed how, for nearly 20 years, Mr Davy managed to talk his way into important positions around the world and then vanish when debts piled up and he was found not to live up to his billing.

John Brian Davy, also known as Christopher John Davy, was born in Ottawa on October 4, 1950.

In Vancouver in the late 1970s he started a variety of small businesses, none of which was very successful, the newspaper said.

He and a partner also acquired control of a mining company called Harwin Exploration and Development Inc. According to court documents, Harwin reverted to its previous owners in 1988 when Mr Davy and his partner could not pay a C$75,000 ($107,700) debt.

The next year, when looking for work around Vancouver, Mr Davy said he had worked for a company called Platinum Productions in Florida, Los Angeles and Vancouver as a producer. He claimed to have written and released several songs and "directed two project teams in the C$2.5-billion merger proposal of Polygram Records".

Around the same time, Mr Davy impressed the British Columbia Holistic Healing Association with his business acumen and was appointed treasurer.

According to allegations in court documents, he was soon writing himself cheques from the association's bank account and ringing up expenses for hotels and a cellphone.

Suing for missing investment funds, the association's directors won a judgment against Mr Davy for C$5879. He has yet to repay the money.

He then moved to the British Columbia mountain resort of Whistler to set up an accounting business. The Globe and Mail reiterated previous reports that Mr Davy boasted a meaningless accountancy qualification and mismanaged clients' book-keeping.

His clients also had no idea that Mr Davy was in financial trouble, the newspaper said. Court records show that in 1993, he owed C$30,000 tax, C$15,500 on two bank loans, C$9600 on several credit cards and C$5100 for unpaid parking tickets and car insurance.

In December 1993, when Mr Davy filed for personal bankruptcy, he listed his occupation as an "arbitrator and hockey referee".

He left town and headed to Saudi Arabia where he met Peter Pritchard, a Canadian working for a telecommunications company, and asked him if he knew of any jobs. He told Mr Davy to contact a friend of his at Al Babtain LeBlanc, the Saudi division of Canada's LeBlanc & Royale Enterprises Inc telecommunications company.

Mr Davy "had all these credentials; the NHL referee, the music company, forensic auditor," Mr Pritchard said.

"I set up the meeting with LeBlanc to get him hired. And, that's always bugged me because normally I have a pretty good pick of guys. I haven't made many mistakes. But this one I sure did. LeBlanc has never let me forget that I was the guy that introduced them to John Davy."

LeBlanc hired Mr Davy to run the company's information systems. He also managed part of the accounting operations.

He sold LeBlanc some computer software from Platinum Productions, which he claimed to own in Vancouver.

"We always made fun because he had these cards that had about four or five different initials after his name," said Mr Pritchard's son, Matthew, who worked at LeBlanc.

In 2000, the company fired Mr Davy when he could not account for C$12,000 in expenses.

Mr Davy next headed to Hong Kong where he touted his alleged NHL refereeing experience and started the Asian Hockey Association. He was soon organising and refereeing hockey tournaments across Asia and was featured on an "Ask The Ref" section of a website pictured in an NHL referee uniform.

Around May last year, he met Matthew Pritchard at a hockey tournament in Kuala Lumpur and told him he was about to get married and was considering a job in New Zealand.

"He said that he couldn't stand New Zealand, he didn't like it, there was nothing to do there," Mr Pritchard said.

- NZPA

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