Ex-Wilson Parking employee duped Christchurch landlord into acting against his values, court told

Friday, 19 June 2026

A Christchurch landowner says he would have never got into business with Mainland Parking had he known its owner could be breaching a restraint of trade.

Anthony Carey, a retired car dealer, told Employment Court Judge Helen Doyle on Friday he was uncomfortable with hiding information from Wilson Parking.

Separately, a private investigator whose “cover was blown” told the court he saw the defendant carrying mysterious documents from an unexpected location.

Wilson is accusing its ex-employee Peter Turner of several contract breaches, including his 12-month restraint of trade, and sabotaging clients’ relationships before starting a rival company.

Carey said he just wanted the best value for his and his wife’s Tuam St property, the rates bill for which left them out of pocket for years after the Canterbury earthquakes.

He signed an agreement with Wilson in 2016 and almost exclusively dealt with a senior Wilson executive who has name suppression.

The senior executive is not a party to proceedings but is considered Turner’s co-conspirator. He has turned witness for his ex-employer.

Carey said in April 2023, six months before Turner’s resignation from Wilson, Turner and the senior executive expressed interest in taking over Carey’s lease while having coffee.

“They came together, they spoke together, and they both expressed their dissatisfaction with Wilson Parking,” Carey said.

Carey heard nothing more about a rival business until the senior executive, then still a Wilson employee, rang in April 2024 and arranged for Carey and Turner to discuss the lease over coffee.

“I asked Peter where [the executive] was but he did not give me a straight answer … Peter did not tell me he no longer worked for Wilson Parking at that stage,” he said.

Turner pitched for Mainland and did not disclose his restraint of trade. He offered more money than Wilson, and Carey believed him to be capable, especially with the apparent backing of the senior executive.

Carey signed an agreement with Mainland later that month, about six months before Turner’s restraint of trade was due to expire, with the contract beginning early 2025.

Carey said Turner asked him to keep the agreement secret from Wilson until later in the year, leading Carey to be “deliberately vague” when a different Wilson employee enquired about lease renewal.

“Looking back, I was uncomfortable about that. It is not how I usually do business,” Carey said.

He said had he known about Turner’s alleged breach of obligations to Wilson, he would not have signed the lease.

“It would not be the right thing to do,” he said.

The court also heard from private investigator Edward Luxford, an ex-cop and intelligence officer who Wilson contracted to conduct surveillance on Turner in March last year.

The surveillance ended on day two when Luxford’s “cover was blown”, as Mainland lawyer Olivia Jarvis put it.

While “stretching” his legs some 20 metres from Turner’s home, Luxford said he was suddenly about 1m from the man.

Turner was carrying a “ream” of paper which Luxford believed was freshly printed. He had exited a neighbour’s property, which was not a property known to Wilson.

Luxford said he only glimpsed the top page of the stack and there appeared to be a graph on it, but he could not make out details. He did not have time to take a photo.

“It would have looked very obvious,” he said.

Former colleagues of Turner also took the witness stand on Friday, including Anton Liyanage, his direct line manager who still worked at Wilson.

“I always trusted Peter and the trust was earned,” he said.

“Unfortunately I was deceived.”

The four-week trial resumes next week.