Bankrupt builder who left a trail of debts in Queenstown back 'on the job'

Thursday, 21 February 2019

Bankrupt builder Jaden Melgren wasn't at work the day Stuff paid him a visit.

A bankrupt builder who left a trail of debts behind in Queenstown appears to have been running a new construction business in Auckland.

Jaden Melgren's Queenstown-based True Line Builders Ltd was put into voluntary liquidation in July 2017 and out-of-pocket creditors are still trying to claw back almost $800,000.

He shifted to Auckland and set up building company Melcon Ltd a week later. That company was removed from the Companies Register after four months.

In July Melgren was adjudged bankrupt in the Auckland District Court, excluding him from managing or controlling a business.

* Whitianga builder claims Melgren destroyed his business

* Bankrupt runaway builder leaves behind 'trail of chaos'**

However, tradesmen told Stuff that he appears to have been overseeing projects at several sites around Auckland. Sources say he had what looked like a crew of two or three staff working for him at a residential site on the North Shore last year.

Former Queenstown builder Jaden Melgren on a duckshooting trip.

They say he had taken on another job recently but was unable to supply the staff he promised.

* Do you know more? Email debbie.jamieson@stuff.co.nz

It is unclear what name he may be trading under but his wife Jackie Melgren is the sole director and shareholder of Old School Carpentry Co, which was set up in January 2018.

Jackie Melgren was a shareholder in the failed True Line Builders Ltd, but was removed a day before the company went into liquidation.

Jaden and Jackie both say that Jaden is not working.

Jaden said the company was set up because 'we might do something. We're not doing anything at the moment.'

When Stuff visited last week Jaden at his Whangaparaoa home on the Hibiscus Coast north of Auckland, he wouldn't disclose how much his company owed.

'You guys ruined my life,' he said.

'My company's not the only company that's gone into liquidation in the country, I don't know why you've got a target on me.'

In an earlier interview he said he had been making payments as prescribed under a Deed of Settlement by selling his gun collection and his 'toys'.

His wife, Jackie Melgren, said she was supporting the family by working as the manager of a gift shop.

Earthworks contractor Simon Hunt is owed $25,000 by liquidated building company True Line.

Jaden was devastated by what had happened in Queenstown and the subsequent media coverage, she said.

'Jaden is devastated every day about what we've gone through. He hasn't been able to go to work. He can't.'

James MacQueen, an advisory partner for accountancy firm BDO, says bankrupts cannot continue trading under their own name or anyone elses.

'When you are bankrupt you cannot use somebody as a blind front, which it looks and smells like. It is something the official assignee would be keen to know about.'

In his most recent six-month liquidator's report on True Line Builders liquidator Imran Kamal said he had concerns 'regarding the manner in which the business was conducted and the substantial loss suffered by creditors'.

He told Stuff he would refer the case to the Companies Office enforcement unit. It would be up to the unit to decide if charges would be laid.

He was still considering whether to take enforcement action in the High Court to recover tools taken and hidden by creditors in Queenstown.

'As this will inevitably incur further cost, the liquidator is yet to determine what further action to take,' the report says.

When they left Queenstown, documents abandoned in the Frankton office included repossession notices on cars and a boat, a Statutory Demand from Inland Revenue for more than $150,000 and a letter from his accountants dated October 2016 telling Jaden Melgren that the company was technically insolvent back in March 2016.

Queenstown-based earthworks contractor Simon Hunt is owed $25,000 by True Line and is angry the Melgrens may be back in business.

'The whole idea of bankruptcy is to stop the same sort of shit happening again,' he said.

'He'll do it again, I guarantee it…He'll just rip people off and do a runner. It's diabolical.'

Jaden Melgren disputes the amount owed, saying it was more like half the amount stated by Hunt.

The company owes seven preferential creditors and 22 unsecured creditors a total of $793,215.

Kamal said it was too early to say how much of those debts would be met.

'There have been a lot of costs involved in this liquidation.'

True Line Builders is not the first failed business Jaden Melgren has been linked to.

Whitianga builder Nick Gill alleges Jaden Melgren left him with a debt of nearly $100,000 after disappearing while the men were business partners in the Coromandel in 2006. Jaden Melgren has denied the claim.

* Additional reporting Matthew Rosenberg