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TVFREE Ltd Wellingon New Zealand

Kiwi Seeks Justice in Aussie Court
28 April 2006

Wellington man John Creser has been forced to take legal action in Australia against his Sydney based trustee because NZ Courts have recently made decisions out of step with universally accepted legal practice.

For the past four years his trustees have refused to disclose the trust’s financial records after he went to Court with documentary evidence, recovered from his trustee’s recycling, of inflated maintenance accounts, welfare fraud and padded bills to write-off tax.

The High Court at Wellington subsequently refused to order financial disclosure and awarded $6000 in costs against Mr Creser who was then bankrupted by his trustees- at an approximate cost of NZ $250,000.00 to his trust.

Mr Creser said today, “ The effect of the bankruptcy was to halt successful proceedings against the trustee’s and allowed probate by default- this situation would not have arisen if I were entitled to reciprocal court costs, as is the case in the UK and full financial disclosure, as is the norm in family trust relationships. Likewise in Canada, the UK and Australia, a person such as a trustee, who obviously holds property on behalf of someone else - would be protected by the power of retention”

The lack of transparency and maturity in the New Zealand justice system has recently been criticised in a number of high profile cases- where critical evidence has been suppressed and rulings which ignore common law precedents and statutory requirements.

An Australian federal Judge recently refused to deport two alleged sex offenders to New Zealand after noting that it was unlikely that they would receive a fair trial, and Mr Creser commented that a prominent Wellington Barrister and former Crown Solicitor Robert Lithgow recently described appearing before the NZ Court of Appeal as a complete waste of time and that he would never bother taking case there again.

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