Toy ‘burger buggies’ are exhibit

Press, 20 October 1987, Page 22

Toy ‘burger buggies’ are exhibit

Four McDonalds Burger Buggy toys became exhibit one as a complicated prosecution of a Christchurch company director, Mr Kevin Francis Meates, under the Customs and Sales Tax acts began in the District Court yesterday. Meates, a former All Black, has denied five charges before Judge Noble, in a hearing which is expected to be adjourned part-heard after four witnesses, including two from overseas, have been heard. The Crown prosecutor, Mr David Saunders, provided a flow diagram to the judge, showing how the toy components for the buggies were brought into New Zealand in three shipments in 1984.. He said in his opening address that the Crown would allege Meates asked overseas suppliers to provide false invoices,

and had evaded customs duty and sales tax totalling $51,258.28. Meates faces a Customs Act charge of conspiring with two other people in Hong Kong, to import toy components which were declared on false documentation. He has also been charged that as a director of Julius Harper, Ltd, he consented to the production to Customs of false documents in which the goods were undervalued. He is charged on another count of. consenting to the production of a false invoice in which the goods were undervalued, thereby evading duty. Two alternative charges have been laid under the Sales Tax Act. They are that he conspired with two people in Hong Kong to import goods on false documentation, and that as a director of Julius Harper, Ltd, he imported

goods that were declared on . false documentation, thereby evading sales tax of $36,207. Seven charges against the firm have been adjourned pending the outcome of the trial. Mr Barrie Atkinson, Q.C., appears for Meates. The four toy cars involved in the charges were produced in court by a witness for the McDonalds hamburger restaurant chain’s publicity firm, Mr Lester Wilson Smith, of Auckland, who said about 200,000 of the cars had been distributed to be sold through McDonalds outlets. Mr Saunders said evidence would show Mr Meates was contracted to import the cars in parts from Hong Kong, have them assembled, and delivered to McDonalds. The original delivered price of 99 cents each was raised because of an in-

crease in the factory price, and the devaluation of the New Zealand dollar in mid-1984. He said Mr Smith would say the sales tax- content was paid at the time the goods were delivered completed. When the Customs Department began inquiries into the importing activities of Julius Harper, Ltd, it became apparent that the company, under, the guidance of Meates, had gone to considerable lengths to involve other companies, in a substantial and fraudulent evasion of duty and sales tax. At Meates’s request, the Hong Kong firm Petrine, which supplied the goods, provided documents which “did not correctly reflect the contract price,” Mr Saunders said. This did not amount to an offence in the eyes of the Hong Kong authorities. In evidence, Mr Smith

would not agree with Mr Atkinson’s suggestion that McDonalds had acted as a wholesaler in supplying the toys to its restaurants. He said it was not a licenced wholesaler and therefore was not able to collect the sales tax. He said the toys had been subject to import licensing, and it was difficult to get licences. However, there was no difficulty in getting licences to bring in components. Mr Harry Panzer, of New York, president ’of the Harry Panzer International Corporation, which owns the Petrine company, said 100 million of the cars had been sold,' but the New Zealand order was the only one where the cars had not been assembled. It was more expensive to ship them in a disassembled form. The hearing continues today.