A Milton farmer's misplaced trust in a stock and station agent has ended with a judge saying the days of doing business on a handshake are over. Justice Gerald Nation of the High Court in Christchurch found largely in favour of Jasper Ross Clark against stock and station firm Rural Livestock. The judge said there was no dispute that Rural Livestock invoiced Clark for the cows and that Clark paid the bill, but what happened to the cows was more problematic. A Rural Livestock general manager suggested it was possible the proceeds were credited "to one of Mr Williams' own fictitious accounts, although not paid out to him." That general manager acknowledged the firm's "systems and management inadvertently allowed Mr Williams' irregularities to occur unnoticed and then failed to detect them for some time."

Source: Otago Daily Times April 05, 2019 00:33 UTC