Company directors Hayden Jones, Thomas Jones fined

By Paul McBeth

Sept. 11 (BusinessDesk) - Christchurch company directors Hayden Jones and Thomas Jones have each been fined $35,000 for breaching financial reporting rules by not filing financial statements.

The pair were sentenced at the Christchurch District Court today having pleaded guilty to four counts of breaching the Financial Reporting Act, for failing to file statements for Heritage Park Taupo and Prudential Real Estate Investment for the years ending March 31, 2012 and 2013, the Financial Markets Authority said in a statement.

Prudential Real Estate Investment is an offeror and manager of two proportionate ownership schemes, which also failed to file financial statements, and that failure was the basis for the charges.

"This sentence sends a strong signal to companies raising funds from the public that the FMA will take strong action when companies persistently fail to meet their obligations," FMA director of enforcement Belinda Moffat said. "We expect issuers of securities to file their financial statements in an accurate and timely way."

In July the FMA published a review of non-filing of financial statements, which found 73 percent of 305 limited liability companies with March balance dates filed their 2013 statements by the cut-off on Sept. 27 last year. Of those that were late, the FMA initiated proceedings against seven directors, related to eight entities, including Jones and Jones.

The pair were also parties in the FMA's case against contributory mortgage broker Prudential Mortgages, and were convicted and fined $2000 in March this year for filing to file an annual report for the firm.

(BusinessDesk)

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