A stoush between a luxury resort and a man over establishing a coffee plantation in Northland has ended up in court.

Carrington Resort on the Karikari Peninsula has obtained an order from the High Court,
preventing Theo van den Brink from removing equipment the resort purchased and to return funds it lent to him for the plantation on a leased property.

The court has ordered him to return the equipment and funds to the resort.

Carrington has sought further orders that van den Brink has breached his fiduciary obligations to the resort, as well as the Fair Trading Act 1986 and has engaged in negligent misstatement. Justice Kiri Tahana ruled in Carrington’s favour.

Van den Brink has filed a notice of opposition and affidavits but not a statement of defence.

The High Court judgment says in June last year, both parties began discussing the establishment of a coffee plantation which would involve germinating green coffee beans to produce seedlings for planting.

During discussions, van den Brink provided Carrington’s chief executive officer, identified in the court judgment as Mr Tan, with financial projections, quotations for equipment required to establish the operations and requested $25,000 to build infrastructure and start germinating coffee beans.

He told the resort he had access to land to be leased from Far North Holdings, starting on July 1 last year.

A memorandum of understanding was signed in September 2021. After the signing, van den Brink requested Tan, through an email, to pay expenses including salaries of $200,000 per annum for him, $40,000 for a Mr Brown and $60,000 to $70,000 to a Mr Atkinson and his partner.

He requested Tan to pay invoices from suppliers and asked for an advance of $25,000 for materials, contractors and more green coffee beans.

In January, he asked for more money for materials and to pay Atkinson but Tan said no further funds would be advanced without receipts.

Carrington had earlier advanced $80,000 to van den Brink’s personal bank account and purchased equipment worth $700,000 and delivered them to him.

Tan indicated that van den Brink needed to arrange for the equipment to be taken to Carrington but the latter expressed concern about such an arrangement.

He indicated he did not intend to continue with the coffee plantation at Carrington until a “binding joint venture document” was established and arrears in funding were “normalised.”

Carrington disputed the allegations he made and when its CEO and staff went to meet him, he prevented them from accessing the site and subsequently trespassed them.

Court action followed. Determination on the loss Carrington suffered as a result of van den Brink’s actions has been adjourned to a date yet to be confirmed as the resort was unable to quantify its loss until it recovered the equipment and money it advanced to him.