Evidence Completed In Gardner Trial

Press, Volume CVIII, Issue 31676, 11 May 1968, Page 40

Evidence Completed In Gardner Trial

(New Zealand Preu Aeeociation)

AUCKLAND, May 10.

The hearing of evidence in the trial of Robert John Gardner was completed in the Supreme Court at Auckland today. Counsel will address the jury on Monday and Mr. Justice Moller will sum up on Tuesday.

Gardner, aged 39, t a company director, ’ faces' 19 counts of t false pretences involv- a ing a total of £11,096. The counts allege the obtaining in April, May and < June, 1 1966, of cheques in c favour of Leidrum and Hart- t nell, Ltd, by falsely represent- t ing that the company was i carrying on a bona fide bust- r MSS. t Mr C. M. Nicholson appears <i for the Crown, and Mr L. W. Brown for Gardner. I Gardner admitted under a cross examination today that I when in February, 1966, he s told the Australian press that c the Unigroup company had raised $500,000 capital, the c 'company in fact had no funds. < Two Shares t Gardner, asked if the com- c pany had raised $500,000 capi- I tai, said it had a registered i capital of this sum, but it was only .necessary to pay up a I minimum of two shares to i make it operate. t Mr Nicholson: Had you I raised $500,000 capital?—ln I Australian business language t yes. In plain, ordinary English ( language?—English varies, i There’s Americanism, Austra- < lianism. ... < At this point his Honour intervened and asked Gardner < if the company had the money < in the sense that it was i $500,000 capital paid up by t shareholders. Gardner said the company did not have 1 it The company had a nom- 1 inal sum of $2 or $4 in shares, i Gardner said the company would have had no funds to ' pay any expense it might have received a sudden call for, but he said he himself could have provided at least $50,000, whiehhe could h*ve got from a Mr Marks, or G. A. West or , his wife. Court Order Gardner further agreed with Mr Nicholson that a court order was made to wind up Leidrum and Hartnell (Australia), Ltd, in May, 1966, after a petition from one of the company’s creditors.. He said he' eould have told , a meeting of creditors in Australia in April or May, 1966, that the company had received about $350,000 from distributors and that it owed $36,000. Gardner said he was sur- a prised that one of the credi- v tors had petitioned to wind t up the company, because he ( had. been negotiating with all t the creditors and did not S think any of them were suf- t ficiently dissatisfied for a peti- s tion to be made. f When the Unigroup com- e panies were incorporated in t February, 1966, he was the a chief instigator. He said West, McGurgan, Chaplin, and Miss t Keane were also involved, f Gardner agreed he could be I termed the leader of the c

team, but also agreed that he was not a shareholder in any of the three Unigroup companies, nor was he registered as a director.

Unigroup Contact

Asked why this was so, Gardner said Aero was a clause in the Unigroup contract which cancelled the contact if a director was Involved in any liquidation or bankruptcy proceedings. At that time he was involved in liquidation.

He said he did not wish to hide that fact from the Russians, who were dealing with Unigroup, but he could not be shown as a director of the company.

Asked about the operations of Leidrum and Hartnell (NX), Ltd, Gardner said he took no steps -o have this company’s nominal capital of £lOO increased because there was no need for IL He said that when the company was sold—as he thought it would be in a year or two—the difference between the shares in the company and the selling price would be a capital gain.

As from April 18, 1966, Chaplin was technically the major shareholder, though Gardner had a mortgage on Chaplin’s shares. He said he wanted Chaplin eventually to be in sole charge but for the time being retained financial control by the mortgage. On his instructions Chaplin’s name was substituted for his on the list of executives in a company pamphlet He said this was done be-

cause he did not think he himself was going to spend very long in New Zealand. Gardner said he ordered cosmetic supplies for midMarch, the end of March and mid-AprlL The launching date he had in mind for the cosmetics was about mid-May. He was in constant touch with the suppliers, who kept assuring him that the cosmetics would be available in about a week, but he said thio happened several times. Vanbro, Ltd, began to supply packaged units of cosmetics early in June. As at June 17, Gardner said he thought the cosmetics would be retailed about the end of June.

Cash Sent Away Gardner said he had put £2200 or £2500, £lOOO of which he had borrowed from West, into the New Zealand venture. It was Chaplin who had collected payments from two Christchurch distributors. Perhaps because of laziness be had used the name of Randall to save explaining why Ran. dall, who they were expecting, had not come. Gardner said he had sent large sums of the company's cash to Australia to make money in the event of devaluation and to ensure the supply of raw materials from overseas.

Gardner said the Mrs I. West to whom he had asked Mr Morrow to make cheques payable was his mother. His father had died in America. He had not used the name Robert John Gardner in America or in England.