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The Christchurch businessman behind The Safety Warehouse Auckland’s $ 100,000 fake money stunt earlier this week has a sometimes fraught business history.
28-year-old Andrew Thorn has been involved in a variety of different ventures, some of which have ended in failure, and has also been the subject of criminal prosecution.
He’s no stranger to the headlines, but Aotea Square’s cash drop over the weekend is his highest-profile stunt yet.
John Kirk-Anderson / Stuff
Andrew John Thorn pleaded guilty to dangerous driving and did not provide the driver’s details after he attempted to hit a woman with a vehicle in 2017.
It was marketed by his Safety Warehouse business as “New Zealand’s first massive cash crash”, promising “real money” flying out of the sky to the tune of $ 100,000.
READ MORE:
* Commerce Commission investigates Safety Warehouse ‘cash crash’
* Cash drop in security warehouse: no evidence of crime – police
* Counterfeit money used to buy drinks at the Hamilton nightclub
Hundreds of people attended, but were disappointed when what fell from the sky were mostly vouchers that looked like banknotes. It is now being investigated by the Commerce Commission.
Numerous reports recounted that people were shot down in the stampede for cash, and some of the people in the crowd responded with anger and violence when they realized they weren’t going to make a cash windfall.
Since then, Thorn has argued in defense of his business and the gimmick, saying he supported the “marketing and what aired at the event.” It claimed that the counterfeit bills added to the cash drop “after risk assessments were conducted to help mitigate offensive behavior among customers.”
SUPPLIED
Fake money delivered to The Safety Warehouse cash deposit in Aotea Square on Saturday, December 5.
News archives, court records, and Business Bureau filings paint a picture of Thorn as one who launched into an eclectic range of business ventures, with mixed results.
They include construction and engineering businesses, a vodka business, an event business, and a pedicab business. Some have been touted as involved in large-scale construction projects, such as the rebuilding of Christchurch after the earthquake.
Over the course of six years, several companies associated with him have been delisted from the Companies Office register and a couple have been put into liquidation.
His Christchurch-based engineering firm, Thorn Engineering, created in 2014, was put into liquidation in 2016 by the Christchurch Superior Court, following a request from creditor United Steel for unpaid invoices.
RNZ
The fake money drop is now in the hands of the Commerce Commission. The Safety Warehouse, which sells protective clothing, announced that $ 100,000 in cash would be given away in a ‘live cash raffle’ with money ‘flying from the sky’, but instead threw out fake money vouchers.
The liquidator’s report said Thorn blamed that failure on a dispute with a business partner.
Thorn Engineering was part of a larger group of companies, with the last holding company known as Thorn Commercial Group, which later changed its name to Aux Online Limited. Aux Online was also put into liquidation by the Christchurch District Court in 2017.
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The liquidators referred him to the director of prohibition of the Registrar of Companies, informing that he had not complied with or cooperated during the investigation.
The company owed the creditors more than $ 342,000, but the liquidators could not find funds to pay. Subsequently, officials decided that there was insufficient evidence to advance an investigation.
David Walker / Stuff
Pedicabs New Zealand Co-Founders and Business Partners Andrew Thorn and Tilah Tekere Ngataierua.
Also in 2017, Thorn ended up in Christchurch District Court after an incident in which he was charged with attempting to run over a business associate in a company car. Police said the car had lost the woman by 6 to 8 inches.
Thorn admitted to dangerous driving and not providing police with details about a driver. He was fined $ 1,000 and ordered to pay $ 2,500 in emotional damage repairs, and was disqualified from driving for six months.
Thorn’s event business made headlines in late 2018 when a music festival he hosted in Christchurch’s residential red light district sparked a wave of noise complaints from people who said their “windows rattled” and “the floor vibrated. ”.
He told the media at the time that it had been a great success; He said that if the event had been poorly managed and if the noise had been excessive, it would have been closed and it wasn’t.
Silverback Events also promoted a “Future Rock Fest” that would take place in February this year at Spark Arena, but it never happened.
Breakfast
Things turned ugly Saturday when people found out that the $ 100,000 “money drop” was not what they thought, and Ricardo Menendez says the promotion was wrong.
His attempt to sell alcohol through an online business, Vodka Plus, hit a wall after police, the Health Ministry and the licensing inspector opposed his request for an unlicensed license.
At a licensing committee hearing, the licensing inspector questioned Thorn about the person who was going to have his GM certificate: Kristin Thomson, who, according to the inspector, wanted nothing to do with the business. Thorn incorrectly identified Thomson as a woman.
The committee noted that while Thorn seemed an intelligent and eloquent man: “Never having had a conversation with the person I was introducing as GM was, in our opinion, negligent to the point of questioning his suitability.”
He was asked about his occupation since he called himself a businessman with various business interests. When asked about his experience in the alcohol industry, it appeared that he was limited to part-time work, the committee said in its decision.
Thorn said he did not want to comment.
