No doubt the company and its directors went into the Christmas selling frenzy knowing it was "in the poo" and needed great trading over Christmas and New Year to have any chance of survival.
It may have done so fearing it would not save the enterprise, but that it would lessen the debt that would be left in early January. If Christmas was going to be the panacea for their woes, previous Christmas trading records would have shown them they had nothing to worry about.
But the Boxing Day sales, which last for three or four days, were barely over when the big announcement was made.
What they knew, too, is that vouchers are an attractive gift in their catalogue. They are popular because the purchaser doesn't have to think so long about what to buy, and the recipient always gets their choice.
They are easily transportable inside Christmas cards, and good value for money because they buy more in Boxing Day sales after Christmas than they would before Christmas.
Dick Smith Electronics would have expected to sell a huge number of vouchers for Christmas. Selling a voucher is not selling a product - it is seeking credit from the purchaser of the voucher, like going and asking for a loan.
In our family's case, a loan of $200. If we go to the bank, a loan shark or a mate and ask for a loan, knowing there is a very good chance we won't be able to repay that loan, it is called a fraud.
But most Dick Smith vouchers sold are valued in the tens of dollars, not thousands of dollars, which means the purchasers and recipients don't have the funds to enforce the contract and are not big enough to be listed as a creditor with any meaning.
The advice from the Commerce Commission is to register the debt and be listed as a creditor, but they also say that chances of the value of the voucher ever being realised are slim to non-existent.
In my view there is little difference to the actions of private finance companies issuing a prospectus seeking investment knowing the company is in trouble and accepting investors' funds anyway, and this little effort by Dick Smith Electronics.
It also seems completely appropriate that any receiver or liquidator, working in the public interest, should authenticate the cumulative value of vouchers sold, and consider prosecution via Commerce Act or Crimes Act on the fraud inflicted on the public.
I heard a renowned Maori academic recalling how his daughter - who had been raised speaking only Te Reo - was learning English. Driving along the road, she was reading out the name of the shops they passed. They drove past a Dick Smith Electronics premises and, as readers will know, the logo has "Dick", then a cartoon of the face of the former owner, and then "Smith".
The child read: "Dick head Smith". We thought it was humorous at the time - turns out it may have been prophetic.
