Former National MP Aaron Gilmore ordered to pay employee under threat of jail time
Monday, 17 December 2018
Former National MP Aaron Gilmore says he has made the payments necessary to prevent the threat of a potential jail term.
Gilmore was the subject of an ERA determination connected to his company, Mighty Rocket Properties.
In October, former employee Amanda High sought a compliance order over a settlement reached in August.
On December 6, Gilmore was ordered to pay what he owed her, as well as an additional penalty.
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Failure to do so by December 20 meant Gilmore could have faced up to three months' prison and a fine of $40,000.
When contacted by Stuff, Gilmore said he had paid the outstanding balance, narrowly avoiding the potential for further court action.
However, Greg Lloyd, the lawyer for High, said Gilmore had not made the payment in full.
'I spoke with my client an hour ago. Since the first settlement he has paid a total of $19,000. That takes care of the compensation amount but he hasn't paid everything,' Lloyd said.
There was $10,000 outstanding, he said.
'If he doesn't pay in full by December 20 then he will be in breach and we will progress further.'
This is not the first time Gilmore has made headlines.
Gilmore was widely derided in 2013 for being rude to a waiter in Hanmer Springs Hotel during a National Party conference and demanding: 'Do you know who I am?'
He then threatened to have the then-prime minister Sir John Key intervene and have the waiter sacked.
The list MP was forced to resign after it was revealed he had lied to the prime minister over his behaviour.
Gilmore then sent text messages threatening 'revenge' against people he felt had been involved in his political downfall.
In 2010, the MP also faced questions over embellishments in his CV, including his claim he was a member of the US Chartered Financial Analysts Institute.
Mighty Rocket Group, incorporated in 2008, listed itself online as financial advisers and investors to 'organisations that are facing significant growth, challenges and opportunities'.
High, a former employee of Mighty Rocket, lodged a personal grievance case against Gilmore earlier this year.
The two parties reached a settlement and Gilmore was ordered to pay High a total of $29,000, including $10,000 in legal costs to be paid to her lawyer.
However, by October, Gilmore had only paid $4700.
During the course of the subsequent authority meeting, member Trish MacKinnon found Gilmore had entered the earlier settlement in bad faith and had no plans to pay according to the agreed schedule.
MacKinnon's determination included the order to pay the remaining sum from the previous case, a $6000 penalty for his failure to comply and $4500 towards High's legal costs.
In a statement Gilmore said he had since made the payments as required by the authority.
He said he still did not agree with the complaint made by High.
'My company agreed to a confidential settlement that it sought to alter and lost that argument. The terms of that settlement and the underlying case are confidential. As such we will not be discussing,' he said.
'However, my company has as at today paid Ms High the rest of amounts we agreed to pay her as per the ERA Compliance Order, a few days early. As such the matter with … High is at an end. A remaining amount due to Ms High's lawyer, a well known union socialist, will be settled as well within the agreed timelines.'
The Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment, which oversees the ERA, said they had not received the $3000 allocated to them in the ERA judgement.
* This story has been amended to clarify that the $29,000 owed by Aaron Gilmore included legal costs.