Firm's false repairs 'worth $160,000 a year'

A second-hand appliance dealer, who pleaded guilty to making unnecessary repairs and lying about the age of whiteware goods, could have cheated customers of up to $160,000 a year, a court was told yesterday.

Brian Soper, the owner of Noel's Appliance World, which has branches in Christchurch and Blenheim, was fined $20,750 after pleading guilty to four misrepresentation charges under the Fair Trading Act, The Press newspaper reported today.

Customer Susan Porter, whose complaint first alerted the Commerce Commission to the shady practices, said she was told by a repairman that her washing machine pump needed to be replaced.

However, she then found the existing pump jammed with a nail and a wire, and when she removed those items, the machine worked perfectly.

"He just made up a whole lot of rubbish," she told the newspaper outside Christchurch District Court later.

The Commerce Commission's barrister, Chris Lange, said technicians at the company were told off if they made too many "minimum charge callouts" and were "encouraged" to change serial numbers on second-hand whiteware to make the items appear newer.

Office staff were also aware of the misrepresentations, he said.

If Soper's company had made unnecessary replacements on even five per cent of 40,000 jobs by the firm a year, he could have benefited by between $80,000 and $160,000 a year.

However, Soper's lawyer, Nicholas Till, argued the decision to replace parts rather than repair them was about "fixing it once and fixing it right".

Judge Stephen Erber said the $20,750 fine reflected Soper's "primary culpability".

- NZPA