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Fraud allegation left former hospo boss shaking in panic
Being thought a fraudster devastated long time Wellington hospitality personality Matt McLaughlin. It came after a hard period in both his business and personal life – including a cancer diagnosis. “It wrecked me,” he said frankly. McLaughlin says he is a generally confident guy, who has no trouble engaging with people and talking in front of groups, but he found himself standing in line to get a drink on a night out and ended up shaking with panic.
McLaughlin, who has been part of Wellington’s hospitality scene for decades and had never been before a court or been in trouble with his businesses before, was shocked to be charged with fraud. On Tuesday Wellington District Court judge Nicola Wills discharged him without conviction.
McLaughlin openly admits he forgot to renew his licence for security, which he told the Department of Internal Affairs when he was interviewed.
But what should have been a simple renewal – something he would have done immediately upon being reminded of the licence renewal – became a long investigation of his work practises, only to have the fraud charges pulled in favour of simple regulatory charges that carried a fine.
McLaughlin finds it a little hard to believe how it all got to the point of him standing in a courtroom. “If someone had given me a call and said hey your licence needs updating, of course I would have done it.”
Instead Internal Affairs interviewed multiple people about McLaughlin’s business and security licence before calling him in an interview. “How much did it cost them for the sake of a $400 licence?” he asks.
The consequences of convictions were immense. As a business owner who has to deal with regulatory licences for managers in a bar, liquor licences and even his licence as a marriage celebrant – could all have been in jeopardy.
Added to that would be consequences for his employees and his reputation.
He and his company Hoff Hospitality Group pleaded guilty to two charges each of providing crowd controller services without having the appropriate licence under the Private Security Personnel and Private Investigators Act.
Judge Wills convicted the company and ordered fines of $15,000. They relate to Newlands New World supermarket and to venues now sold to another company.
In a summary given to the court the Department of Internal Affairs said Hoff Hospitality advertised as a security company but over the relevant period it did not have a licence to operate, engage or employ crowd controllers.
McLaughlin was the owner and director of the company and he did not have a certificate of approval to operate as a crowd controller, the department said. McLaughlin applied for a discharge without conviction on the basis it would affect his Panhead Tory Street business and his employees’ jobs.
His lawyer, Marty Robinson, said the company was guilty of providing unlicensed crowd controller services when outsourcing its guards to the supermarket during the pandemic at no profit. The supermarket had insufficient staff to control the rate of customers entering and the maximum number allowed in the store. The guards counted customers and dispensed sanitiser and masks.
He said McLaughlin says it did not dawn on him at that point that his company was acting without a licence. Robinson told the judge McLaughlin was initially notified the licence needed renewing in 2017 but did not need it at that time. He did apply for renewal at that point to keep options open before being asked to get additional training to support his application (which was never ultimately obtained).
The Crown submitted that the offending should be treated as more serious as McLaughlin has held himself out as an experienced and knowledgeable member of the industry. It asked for a starting point of fines of $16,000 for McLaughlin and $24,000 for the company.
Late last year McLaughlin sold Panhead and is now employed by the New Zealand Community Trust.