Mener Group sues directors over $1.2m debt

Embattled residential construction company Mener Group has launched legal action against its former directors in a bid to recover the $1.27 million it owes its creditors.

Mener Group and its liquidators Mitchell Herrett and Greg Dudley of RSM are taking former Mener Group directors Todd Buckley and Ngan Noir to court over allegations the pair failed to keep adequate financial records, records the plaintiffs allege would have confirmed the company’s insolvency back in March 2013.

The application to wind up the business was filed back in February last year, made by petitioning creditors Christo Daniel Meyer and Camila Adamo Ibraimo Meyer.

According to the company’s financial documents, Mr and Mrs Meyer are among 136 unsecured creditors, owed more than $122,000.

In addition, QBE Insurance is allegedly owed more than $500,000, and Austral Bricks, which is allegedly owed more than $23,000.

In a writ filed with the Supreme Court this week, Mener Group alleges that during their time as directors, Mr Buckley and Mr Noir failed to keep adequate financial records explaining the company’s transactions and financial position from March 2013 until March 2020, breaching the Corporations Act.

As a consequence, the writ states that Mener Group is presumed to have been insolvent from March 2013 and trading at a loss from June 2017 until January 2020, with material outstanding creditors, a poor compliance history with trade creditors and in receipt of solicitors' letters and judgements entered against it.

The company further alleges that the pair incurred debts to unsecured creditors in the order of $1.27 million - debts the liquidators are entitled to recover.

Mener Group claims in the writ that the pair breached their statutory duty to act with care, diligence, and good faith, and not to improperly use their position as directors to gain "advantage for themselves".

The company’s liquidators had already demanded the pair repay Mener Group $1.27 million by way of letters sent to each of them on January 22, 2021, but they failed to respond and the debts remain unpaid.

Now, Mener Group is claiming a declaration that they have breached the act, the sum of $1.27 million, further damages, compensation, interest in the sum of $11,700 and costs.