Queen's Service Medal recipient Davinder Rahal's company is in liquidation owing $4 million and a finance company is chasing him for $180,000 owed on a luxury 2015 Rolls-Royce Ghost.
Queen's Service Medal recipient Davinder Rahal's company is in liquidation owing $4 million and a finance company is chasing him for $180,000 owed on a luxury 2015 Rolls-Royce Ghost.
A company owned by a respected Auckland businessman and Queen’s Service Medal recipient owes $4 million to creditors, with a finance firm demanding $179,000 for a luxury Rolls-Royce Ghost car, a liquidator’s report reveals.
Indian community leader Davinder Singh Rahal is the director of First Trust Limited (FTL), along with his wife Jivan. He and FTL have been ordered to pay a young couple nearly $1m in damages for deceptive conduct after selling them a rotting home in a case described by a judge as “quite literally a cover-up”.
In a first liquidator’s report this week, Baker Tilly Staples Rodway liquidator Jared Booth detailed the state of the company’s finances, its current debts and a list of known creditors, which include a major bank, Auckland Council, IRD and a series of legal firms.
The report said the company operated as trustees of First Trust. Its various assets are now subject to several caveats and charging orders lodged by creditors.
Secured creditors are owed $3m. They include ASB, which holds a mortgage security for $2.6m over a commercial property owned by the company. The report says a caveat is understood to have been lodged against the property by another unnamed creditor to secure a mystery debt of $225,000.
Queen's Service Medal recipient Davinder Rahal's company is in liquidation owing $4 million and a finance company is chasing him for $180,000 owed on a luxury 2015 Rolls-Royce Ghost.
UDC Finance is owed $179,000. It holds a security interest over a black 2015 Rolls-Royce Ghost – licence plate “RAHAL” – which the Personal Property Securities Register (PPSR) shows was bought in December 2022. Rahal’s name and address are listed under “debtor details”.
An Instagram video shows Rahal using the luxury vehicle – which a dealership told the Herald is now worth about $200,000 – to pick up Indian singing star Malkit Singh from Auckland Airport in October last year when he arrived to perform.
Indian singing star Malkit Singh (wearing a yellow turban) is picked up by Davinder Rahal's Rolls-Royce Ghost after he arrived in New Zealand to perform in October 2023.
A finance company is chasing Queen's Service Medal recipient Davinder Rahal's company for $180,000 owed on his 2015 Rolls-Royce Ghost.
The report says the vehicle is also subject to a charging order held by another creditor.
“We understand that this vehicle is in the process of being realised by UDC Finance Ltd, and that the estimated realisable value of the vehicle is less than the amount owed to UDC Finance Ltd.”
A further $18,000 is owed to IRD as a preferential creditor.
Three law firms and Rahal’s current lawyer, Andrew Grant, are also listed as creditors, along with Auckland Council, which confirmed to the Herald it was owed outstanding rates and a building consent fee.
Among unsecured creditors listed in the report, FTL owes $960,000 to South Auckland couple Ameet Bhargav and his wife Renu.
They bought a property in Goodwood Heights, Manukau, from FTL in March 2022. But immediately after they moved in, the property began to leak and was found to have significant rot and weathertightness problems.
The couple sued Rahal and FTL in the High Court. A judge found Rahal was aware the house was a leaky building when he bought it in 2019, that he authorised cosmetic repairs to mask water damage and deliberately failed to disclose defects to the buyers.
Rahal accepted that parts of the property “smelt damp and mouldy” when he viewed it, but said he thought this was what made it a “do up”.
Davinder Rahal was found to have deceptively sold a leaky home to a young couple in Goodwood Heights, Manukau, in March 2020.
He denied being told by the selling agent that it was a leaky home and said he would never have bought it if he knew it leaked.
The judge disagreed, ruling that Rahal had authorised “cover-up works” and that his failure to disclose that information “constituted misleading and deceptive conduct”.
Despite his financial woes, Rahal instructed his lawyers to appeal against the finding to the Court of Appeal, where he will argue he should not have been found personally liable.
The appeal is another blow for the plaintiffs, who have now waited more than four years for justice and are stuck living in a rotting home with a young child, having spent at least $400,000 on legal fees.
Former Governor-General Sir Jerry Mateparae (left) with Davinder Singh Rahal as he received the Queen's Service Medal for services to the Indian community in 2012.
The Herald reported this month that Rahal resigned as a Justice of the Peace ahead of a Ministry of Justice probe into whether he was fit to continue holding JP warrants.
The Honours Unit is also assessing whether it is suitable for Rahal to hold a Queen’s Service Medal in light of the court findings.
The liquidator’s report says “incomplete records” were available regarding unsecured creditor claims against FTL, though a further $109,000 had been identified so far.
The liquidators were reviewing existing legal proceedings and trying to realise sufficient assets to pay creditors. They would investigate the company’s books and records to confirm whether all assets had been properly accounted for and whether the company’s officers had complied with their duties.
