‘Voice of Speedway’ Aaron Drever pleads not guilty to string of charges – صحيفة الصوت

A once-banned real estate agent previously known as ‘The Voice of Speedway’ will defend charges he ran a chip shop business while still bankrupt.

Aaron Carl Drever entered not guilty pleas to six charges at the Auckland District Court on Tuesday morning, all relating to the affairs of a now-defunct chain of chip shops once owned by his partner.

Drever was bankrupted in 2019 after a failed attempt at running a gourmet supermarket in Mt Eden. The Grocer’s Market was liquidated after five months in business, and he was held personally liable for $488,000 of its debts after a judge said Drever “failed egregiously” in his role as director.

Previously, he’d been a prominent west Auckland real estate agent but lost his real estate licence for five years from 2016 after eight charges of either misconduct or unsatisfactory conduct, and lost a 2017 appeal for its reinstatement.

Drever had won various real estate agency awards for selling millions of dollars of West Auckland property, but when his licence was cancelled the REA said Drever was “unable or unwilling” to change and “the public needs to [be] protected from him”.

He was also a prominent figure in the world of speedway, where for many years he was the race caller at Western Springs speedway track.

After that, the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment allege Drever was involved in running the fish and chip business without permission.

The Fish and Chippery had branches in Grey Lynn, Onehunga, Remuera, Birkenhead and Te Atatū but all have now closed.

Two of the charges related to Drever being involved in the management of two companies related to the chain, FC Te Atatu and the Fish and Chip Co.

One charge alleges he “took control” of FC Te Atatu, understood to have run the Fish and Chippery’s Te Atatu branch, between June 2020 and June 2021. FC Te Atatu, whose sole director was Melissa Wymer-Tisdale, was removed from the Companies Register this year.

The other charge alleges he was involved in managing the Fish and Chip Co “without consent of the court or official assignee, and without reasonable excuse”.

The shops were bought in 2021 by Australian entrepreneur Andrew Philips, and the Fish and Chip Co was then placed into liquidation. A recent report by liquidator Gareth Hoole said he had “established that the sale and purchase documentation was flawed for a number of reasons; seemingly by design on the part of a certain individual who was purporting to act for the vendors and also for the purchaser.

“The individual concerned was an undischarged bankrupt at that time and remains such. His actions have been reported to the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE) who have conducted investigations and the Liquidators understand that charges are being brought.”

A third charge alleges that between July 2019 and June 2022, he failed to file a statement of his affairs with the Official Assignee, in breach of the Insolvency Act. A statement on behalf of Drever said his barrister had submitted those reports for him.

The remaining three charges relate to obtaining credit, totalling $28,635, from a digital advertising agency, Lighthouse Digital, without informing them he was an undischarged bankrupt.

Drever, represented by a duty lawyer, entered not guilty pleas. He told Stuff he was seeking a suppression order in the High Court; no such application was made at the District Court.

He then supplied a statement from his email address but attributed to a spokesman. The statement said Drever was pleading not guilty because “my client has not operated a company in a position with any director obligations”.

The statement said Philips had “made all the decisions relating to the day-to-day operations and was ‘over’ the running of the business, and rang my client 10 to 12 times a day to instruct and cover the ground running of the operations…. while the director of the company was based in Australia and was not in NZ, my client acted under instructions.”