Campervan trader found to have ripped off customers for tens of thousands of dollars in four-year probe

The trader has taken tens of thousands of dollars from New Zealanders for vans that either never appear or never work.

His campervans may constantly be breaking down, but Lindsey Michael Simmonds just keeps going. The campervan trader was previously declared bankrupt and then had his company, The Bus Haus, put into liquidation. Yet customers continue to be ripped off for tens of thousands of dollars. Simmonds refused to talk to Fair Go about this, so Fair Go confronted him in Rotorua. It wasn't pretty.

After telling reporter Gill Higgins how annoying she was, Simmonds lunged for the cameraman. Simmonds was with his wife Svetlana and his three children.

Fair Go had no desire to involve Simmonds' children, but we did want the truth and refused to let Simmonds use them as a shield. As Simmonds walked away with them, Fair Go began questioning Ms Simmonds about her involvement. Ms Simmonds is the sole director and shareholder of Smart RV Ltd*. It's this company account that recent victims of Simmonds have paid into. Simmonds claims to have no link to this company, yet clearly he's the frontman, with money and assets all going the way of Smart RV Ltd*.

Ms Simmonds refused to answer any questions. Simmonds could have continued walking away with his children but instead he attacked the cameraman again, this time breaking his gear and then turning to shove the reporter, ripping the microphone away and smashing it against a lamppost. This behaviour was bad enough, but it got worse.

Fair Go had been joined by 72-year-old Desrian Hill, one of many victims owed money by Simmonds. She paid $20,000 for a van, but has never been given the van, and even after winning a Disputes Tribunal against Simmonds, she's never been paid back. Ms Hill was determined to have her say, but Simmonds didn't give her a chance, shoving her backwards and shouting angrily in her face.

This was the culmination of four years of Fair Go trying to shine a light on the terrible trading practices of Michael and Svetlana Simmonds. Fair Go was first contacted about the campervan dealer in August 2016. Earlier that year, two customers, Miki Szikszai and Hakan Nedjat, had each independently paid Simmonds thousands of dollars upfront for their own VW campervan.

They were sent photos of the vans they had paid for but months went by and no actual campervan came their way. Mr Nedjat had specifically wanted his van for the Christmas holidays. When it still wasn't ready, Simmonds provided a temporary van but Mr Nedjat said it broke down in the first few days. He returned the van and got a replacement. That van broke down too. He'd had enough. Like  Mr Szikszai, he wanted his money back, but Simmonds wasn't paying.

Both Mr Szikszai and Mr Nedjat took Simmonds to the disputes tribunal and each of them won their cases. But despite promise after promise, Simmonds still refused to pay them back in full. Fair Go confronted Simmonds about this. He appeared contrite and again made promises that the money was on its way.

Fast forward to 2019. Mr Szikszai came back to Fair Go explaining that Simmonds had told him repayment would be difficult so he'd offered to register another van in Mr Szikszai's name. Mr Szikszai accepted this, saying that Simmonds could rent the van out to make money to pay him back, with the van acting as a guarantee if that money never materialised. It was at that point that Mr Szikszai learnt The Bus Haus had gone into liquidation.

He felt the deal was too risky. So he asked Simmonds to give him the van instead. Simmonds came up with lots of excuses and wouldn't let Mr Szikszai onto the land where the van was kept. Mr Szikszai employed bailiffs to try to take the van, but it turned out that Simmonds had re-registered the van to his wife's new company Smart RV Limited*.

This is one way that Simmonds manages to hold onto vehicles. He is the frontman. He gets involved in all the communication. So it's Simmonds himself who gets taken to the Disputes Tribunals. But he either has no record of any deals by being paid cash, or it gets paid into an account in another name, such as Smart RV Ltd*.

Likewise, with vehicle registration. He swaps them around so that people who take him to court and are owed money are left without any claim on their vehicles or any money to claim against.

Again we wanted to talk to him about why these customers still hadn't got their money, and why Simmonds was continuing to use The Bus Haus name in some of his trading, given it was in liquidation. Simmonds said a secured creditor had given him authority to do this to recoup some money. He also promised yet again that he would look after Mr Szikszai and give him his money. But once more, that money never came.

After this story ran in 2019, even more disgruntled customers got in touch with Fair Go. We now knew of eight who complained of giving Simmonds thousands of dollars for a campervan, then being left without a working van or their money. All eight have taken their cases to the Disputes Tribunal, and in each case they've won. Yet not a single customer has been paid back in full.

With the help of a private investigator, Jodee Watts, we tracked the vans down to a new location in Rotorua. The property owner had no idea his land was being used as a dump. When we went with him for a visit, we saw it strewn with dozens of vans in a state of disrepair. Many are stripped of parts and too wrecked to be driven.

It's now clear Simmonds had also tried to sell a vehicle that's been blue stickered by police due to false registration information.

In cases like this, the role of Fair Go is to alert the public to the rogue trader in question. It's impossible to force that trader to pay his debts, and customers can feel helpless when even the Disputes Tribunal, or employing bailiffs, fails to get the result they want. There is one other option though. Fair Go has now suggested all the complainants file reports with the police.

Ideally, their cases would be linked to show that Simmonds has failed to provide working vans and has never shown any intention of repaying his customers the money they're owed. We're hoping the police will investigate the case and if they can prove wrongdoing, it should at least help bring some closure to the customers who've lost so much.

* Smart RV Ltd is not to be confused with SmartRV Ltd, a legitimate company that is trying to distance itself from Michael and Svetlana Simmonds.

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