A second Five Star Finance defendant has pleaded guilty to charges laid by the Serious Fraud Office (SFO). Nicholas George Kirk, a former director of Five Star Consumer Finance Limited (Five Star), today pleaded guilty to charges of theft in relation to
A second Five Star Finance defendant has pleaded guilty to charges laid by the Serious Fraud Office (SFO).
Nicholas George Kirk, a former director of Five Star Consumer Finance Limited (Five Star), today pleaded guilty to charges of theft in relation to the misuse of funds at Five Star – which collapsed in 2007 owing investors more than $100 million.
His fellow director Marcus McDonald pleaded guilty to the same charges in late October.
The pair will appear for sentencing on December 21.
The SFO has laid more than 100 charges under the Crimes Act, in relation to related party lending that occurred between 2003 and 2007. Loans in question have a total value of $50 million, a large proportion of which is recoverable, the agency said.
SFO chief executive Adam Feeley has described the case as one of the largest and most complex investigated by the agency in recent years.
Former Five Star director Anthony Walpole Bowdon and manager Neill Alan Williams are also charged by the SFO with offences relating to the misuse of funds.
The pair are yet to be committed for trial.
SFO chief executive Adam Feeley said the guilty plea was a great result for the agency, which today also commended an imprisonment sentence to a former accountant of failed motor vehicle finance company National Finance 2000.
John Gray, 41, a former company accountant at the failed motor vehicle financier, was today sentenced at the Auckland District Court to 18 months in prison after pleading guilty to pleaded guilty to three of four charges laid by the SFO after National Finance collapsed in 2006 owing investors more than $21 million.
“SFO is making real progress in relation to the finance company collapses with a number of the office’s major investigations being successfully concluded.”
Mr Feeley said further decisions would be reached before Christmas.
