Tony Gapes is to appeal Allied Farmers Investments' successful summary judgment against Fenton Projects (as borrower) and Mr Gapes (as guarantor) over a defaulted loan made to Fenton in August 2007, secured by a second mortgage over a property in
Tony Gapes is to appeal Allied Farmers Investments' successful summary judgment against Fenton Projects (as borrower) and Mr Gapes (as guarantor) over a defaulted loan made to Fenton in August 2007, secured by a second mortgage over a property in Auckland's Carlton Gore Road.
The judgment requires Fenton to pay Allied Farmers $764,000. Of that , $600,000 is personally guaranteed by Mr. Gapes.
Allied Farmers managing director Rob Alloway said "It is unbelievable that Mr Gapes continues to go to great lengths to frustrate and delay the payment of a debt which he clearly owes. A court has agreed with our view that the debt is valid and past due, and Mr Gapes' appeal of the decision is nothing more than an attempt to delay the inevitable."
Mr Alloway also said "In addition, one of Mr Gapes' companies, Queenstown Gateway Trustee (QGTL), owes us $3.3 million under a loan made by Hanover to QGTL to finance its acquisition from Hanover of Stage One of the Five Mile land in Queenstown. We understand that Mr Gapes is currently developing this land, which includes the construction of a supermarket for Progressive Enterprises. The transaction in which Hanover made that loan is one of the transactions that we identified as being outside the usual and ordinary course when we determined in June 2010 that we were entitled to cancel our contract with Hanover and retain the $5 million that would have been payable to Hanover had it not been for its breaches of contract. Whilst the Queenstown Gateway loan is not due to be repaid until November 2012, in our view the security provided for it was inadequate. Even more unsatisfactory is the fact that this same security was then granted as further security to FAI Money, a company owned by Mr Mark Hotchin and Mr Eric Watson, without our consent. We intend to pursue Queenstown Gateway in relation to this breach if it is not rectified."
"It is disappointing that we now have to spend additional legal fees and suffer even further delays to confirm our entitlement to judgment. However, as I have said previously, I am not prepared to stand by and allow borrowers like Mr Gapes to default, particularly when he continues to take on new commitments and front new developments".
