PRESS RELEASE
For Immediate Release
Management Committee manipulate voting system
Chairman and Vice Chairman voted out but refused to resign
Members interrogated for collecting signatures for petition
Further no confidence motions refused by committee
Auckland. March 15, 2002
Despite the shareholders of the Auckland Co-Operative Taxi Society overwhelming voting out the Chairman, Mr Robert Van
Heiningen and the Vice Chairman, Mr Brian Lough at a Special General Meeting last week, both refused to resign from
their positions. It was not till after members protested that they finally handed in their resignations as Chairman & Vice Chairman last Friday morning.
However, they have bluntly refused to resign their positions on the management committee and their directorships in over
20 Subsidiaries of the Auckland Co-Operative Taxi Society despite the No Confidence motion requiring their immediate
resignations
This comes on top of the management committee being exposed, by the members, of fraudulently manipulating the Proxy
votes at the Special General Meeting.
When unsuspecting members signed the attendance register they were handed proxies, by the secretary Mr Roger Clark.
These members were unaware whose proxy they were representing and refused to use the proxy given to them when the vote
was called.
Proxies read out by the Secretary were false, as members whose proxies were read out never granted a proxy and in many
cases were also at the meeting. When the committee was questioned over these anomalies in the proxies they refused to
answer.
Additionally, while the cut off time for Proxies is 48 hours prior to the meeting, members were still being called into
the Chairman’s office less than 24 hours prior to the meeting and forced to sign a proxy in favour of the Chairman.
Members have signed affidavits as to these illegal activities of the management committee and an investigation into the
irregularities of the proxy votes, by the Fraud Squad, is pending.
Furthermore, in a decision made this week by the management committee, they have indefinitely delayed a decision to
expelled two members from the Society for collecting signatures for the petition for the vote of no confidence.
Their disregard for the member’s rights is appalling and completely out of order. The current management committee has
spent over $500,000 in Lawyers bills defending themselves against legal actions taken by the members. They have also
expelled members at will who question the actions of the committee.
Additional motions of no confidence in the Secretary and a Committee Member were submitted to the Societies offices last
week however the committee have out rightly refused to vote on these motions at the next general meeting schedule for
2nd April.
The members of the Society will now be taking legal action against the committee members and plan to protest their
concerns outside Taxi House, 10 Macaulay St Newton.
For further information please contact:
John Bourke
C/- The Concerned Members of the Auckland Co-Operative Taxi Society
Ph: 360-2886
Fax: 360-2885
M: 021-402-886