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22 August 2013

Five Star Consumer Finance And Five Star Finance Group

FMA alleged that the directors (Marcus Macdonald, Nicholas Kirk, Anthony Bowden, Neill Williams):

  • Five Star Consumer Finance Limited (FSCF) charges: made untrue statements in the investment statements and registered prospectuses of that company dated 20 September 2006. It is also alleged that the directors made further untrue statements when they signed a prospectus extension certificate on 21 December 2006.
  • Five Star Finance and Five Star Debenture Nominee (FSF and FSDN) charges: offered securities in contravention of the Securities Act and did so without having registered a prospectus or provided investors with an investment statement. Furthermore, they offered investments in FSF and FSDN in advertisements that were not authorised advertisements for purposes of the Securities Act.

The SFO also laid charges against all four directors of FSCF.

22 August 2013

Neil Wiliams was sentenced to five years imprisonment in respect of the SFO charges. This sentence is to be served concurrently with the sentence given for the Securities Act offending.

19 April 2013

Mr Williams was sentenced to three years seven months imprisonment and 5-year management ban. Related media release: Five Star finance saga draws to a close with prison sentence for Neill Williams.

4 February 2013

Mr Williams judicial review application was declined.

23 March 2012

The Court declined Mr Williams' application for plea of guilty.

He applied for a judicial review of that decision and other matters.

22 December 2010

All defendants pleaded guilty. Mr Kirk and Mr Macdonald sentenced to over two years imprisonment. Mr Bowden was sentenced to home detention. All directors banned from managing companies for five years.

Mr Williams applied to vacate his plea of guilty.

30 November 2009

Case filed against FSCF in the District Court at Auckland.

4 August 2008

Case filed against FSF and FSDN in the District Court at Auckland.

Background

Five Star Consumer Finance and Five Star Finance owed $97 million to 2300 investors when they collapsed in 2007.