Controlled demolition topples South Canterbury

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A “controlled demolition” of Allan Hubbard and South Canterbury Finance (SCF) was arranged by the government on a timetable designed to create the least political damage, according to Hubbard’s biographer Virginia Green.

Tuesday, November 16th 2010, 12:40PM 1 Comment

"My conclusion is that there was a controlled demolition of SCF on a timetable that suited the government," Green said.

"They wanted to get control so that it could be dismantled quickly or, rather, it could be liquidated on a convenient timetable."

PICK UP YOUR COPY OF THE BOOK HERE

Green claims the August 31 announcement that SCF had been placed into receivership was timed to be nowhere near an election as taxpayers had to fund the $1.6 billion bailout of SCF through the government guarantee scheme.

In ‘Alan Hubbard: A Man Out of Time' Green describes the rise and fall of someone revered in South Canterbury but misunderstood in other parts of the country.

Hubbard normally avoids public scrutiny and Green says when she started the biography three years ago neither of them could have imagined the subsequent events that led to the collapse of the company.

The book details Hubbard's poverty stricken childhood and reveals how at the age of six he decided poverty would not feature in his future after seeing his mother unable to pay the milkman.

"I decided I was never going to be so poor I couldn't pay the milkman," he told Green.

Through his flagship SCF company Hubbard achieved his aim and this year was reported to be worth $550 million, though now the cash is gone as have his companies, two of which are being investigated by the Serious Fraud Office.

Hubbard, his wife Jean and some of their firms were put into statutory management and the couple get an allowance of $1,000 a week - "more than they'd ever spent on themselves before," Green said.

PICK UP YOUR COPY OF THE BOOK HERE

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