KEY POINTS:
The kidnapping allegation of property developer Kim Spencer was challenged yesterday by the lawyer for his former business partner, one of two men on trial.
Richard George Anthony Kroon and Craig Hamish Weller each face charges of kidnapping and demanding with menaces in relation to events that allegedly took place on November 16, 2004, at Pakiri, north of Auckland.
The Crown alleges Mr Spencer was lured to the Pakiri property by Weller, posing as a prospective buyer, where four men in balaclavas and Kroon were waiting. Mr Spencer claimed he was detained, beaten, stripped below the waist and forced to sign documents consigning 50 per cent of his business profits to Kroon.
It is alleged that one of those documents was a variation to Mr Spencer and Kroon's joint venture operation, dated October 28, 2004.
Paul Davison, QC, for Kroon, suggested to Mr Spencer that he did sign the document on October 28, with Kroon, at Kroon's offices and witnessed by Kroon's secretary.
Mr Davison suggested the variation was agreed to make good on Mr Spencer having left Kroon out of another project, contrary to their business arrangement.
Mr Spencer agreed that he met Kroon on October 28 but denied signing the document then.
Mr Davison referred Mr Spencer to an email Kroon sent on November 4, 2004 that referred to their October 28 agreement. If he hadn't signed by November 4, this email had put Mr Spencer in a position, Mr Davison suggested, to say "I don't know what you are talking about, there is no agreement".
Mr Spencer agreed he had made no comment about it.
Asked whether a possible reason for that was because the agreement dated October 28 did exist, Mr Spencer replied: "No, because I never signed it [until kidnapped]" His practice was to refer such agreements to his solicitors. He also said he didn't personally clear and print emails because he didn't know how to use a computer.
Mr Davison suggested Mr Spencer had decided the Pakiri subdivision had become too hard and that he would wind it up and had been to see his lawyer about this on November 11, 2004.
Mr Spencer said he had made no such decision and had never heard his lawyer use the term "wind up".
Mr Spencer was also challenged about discrepancies in the times he had given regarding showing Weller around the Pakiri property on the day of the alleged kidnapping. He agreed the times he gave in a sworn statement three months later couldn't be right.
Mr Davison suggested it was an account that he had constructed, which Mr Spencer denied.
The case continues in the Auckland District Court before Judge David Wilson, QC, and a jury.
