Whether Mr Garrett is a creditor of the company
4 Mr Garrett claimed that the company owes him for work that he performed for the company before it went into liquidation. He supported his claim by presenting tax invoices issued to OenoViva (Australia & New Zealand) Pty Ltd as Trustee for the Andrew Garrett Family Trust No 3. The invoices are in similar form and each stated that the invoices were for "Services provided as Controller". An example (extracted) is annexed to these reasons for decision as annexure A, being the tax invoice issued to OenoViva (Australia & New Zealand) Pty Ltd as Trustee for the Andrew Garrett Family Trust No 3 bearing the date 22 January 2014. When asked about the services provided, Mr Garrett said that the company had appointed him managing controller of 57 companies in the exercise of its rights under charges provided by those companies and that he was entitled under the terms of his appointment to bill the company for his services as managing controller. Mr Garrett also said that the amounts invoiced were brought to account in the company's accounts. When asked to identify what those accounts were and where the charges were brought to account, Mr Garrett referred to the item "Bad Debt Expense" in the 1 July 2013 to 14 April 2014 Profit and Loss statement for "the trustee for The Andrew Garrett Family Trust No 4". When asked who prepared those accounts, Mr Garrett advised that he had himself prepared those accounts with the assistance of his bookkeeper.
5 I am not satisfied on the state of the evidence that Mr Garrett is a creditor of the company as claimed. The evidence that he relies on is far from satisfactory and his claim that he is a creditor of the company is unsupported by probative evidence. The tax invoices containing the general description of "Services provided as Controller" are at best a bare assertion of indebtedness and are insufficient proof of the existence of debts owed by the company to Mr Garrett and there is no corroborating evidence to show that the invoices are genuine and that there are debts owed by the company to Mr Garrett. The profit and loss statement to which Mr Garrett referred does not constitute independent corroborative evidence of the existence of any debt actually owed by the company to Mr Garrett first, because Mr Garrett prepared them himself and, secondly, because that profit and loss statement does not of itself show that any amount is owed by the company to Mr Garrett. Moreover, unexplained was why such charges, if they were brought to account, appear in the profit and loss statement of the trustee of the Andrew Garrett Family Trust No 4 when the work was claimed to have been performed for, and the invoices were rendered to, the company as trustee for the Andrew Garrett Family Trust No 3.
6 Mr Garrett's claim to be a creditor is also inconsistent with other evidence that is before the Court, namely that:
(a) it is apparent from an email dated 6 May 2014 from the liquidator to Mr Garrett that the liquidator has received only two proofs of debt, neither of which is from Mr Garrett and that Mr Garrett has not lodged a proof of debt in respect of the amounts claimed to be owed to him in the liquidation of the company; and
(b) in the Report as to Affairs of the Company that Mr Garrett himself prepared, signed on 19 March 2014, and filed with the Australian Securities Investments Commission ("ASIC") in his stated capacity as the managing controller of the company, he has recorded "nil" unsecured creditors of the company.
7 In the circumstances, I do not accept the tax invoices as proof of the existence of debts owed by the company to Mr Garrett and reject his claim that he is a creditor of the company.