The Auckland High Court today rejected an appeal by Ashley Guy Rhodes and his companies and upheld the highest total fines to date under the Fair Trading Act.

Commerce Commission Chairman Peter Allport said that in June this year the North Shore District Court fined Mr Rhodes and his four companies a total of $130,000 for issuing false invoices for advertising. The companies are Zennith Publishing Limited, Debson Holdings Limited, Summit Publications Limited and Pana Publications Limited.

Mr Rhodes and his companies appealed on numerous grounds relating to the Commission's investigation, the trial, the convictions and the sentence. The High Court rejected the appeal on all grounds.

The Commission had prosecuted Mr Rhodes alleging that he had set out to deliberately make money by issuing false invoices for advertising that had never been ordered.

In sentencing in the District Court, Judge Gittos said that Mr Rhodes and his companies had engaged in a "carefully contrived deliberate ploy of deception".

Mr Allport said that false invoicing has been a multi-million-dollar problem in New Zealand and he is pleased with the impact the Commission's actions are having against the scams.

"We have successfully prosecuted eight companies that were issuing false invoices this year," Mr Allport said. "Publicity about the convictions has created public awareness of the problem, that awareness has been a big help to the Commission providing information that helps businesses not get caught out by these scams, and business people are acting responsibly to protect themselves.

"We still get complaints from businesses being sent false invoices, but the big difference is that now very few of them are unwittingly paying on false invoices.

"That is the most effective way of stopping these scams. People will run the scams only if they can make money from them.

"The best protection for businesses is to be aware and to take precautions. Be aware that there are people who set out deliberately to rip off you and your business. Take precautions by ensuring that you have effective systems for ordering goods and services, checking that what was ordered was received and authorising payment.

"The Commission, or anyone else, can take enforcement action after money has been taken from a business by a scam. But it is better for the business to have never lost its money."

Free information is available from Commission offices and its website, www.comcom.govt.nz, explaining how businesses can help protect themselves from false invoices.

Media contact: Fair Trading Manager Rachel Leamy

Phone work (04) 498 0908

Communications Officer Vincent Cholewa

Phone work (04) 498 0920

Commission media releases can be viewed on its web site www.comcom.govt.nz