When Ema Latu purchased a car in 2021 at Easy Sell’s car yard in New Lynn she felt thrilled to drive it home.
It was a “big deal” for the West Auckland solo mum who paid in cash up front with money she’d worked hard to save.
“It was the first time I’ve ever bought a car for myself. I was just excited,” she said.
“I took the car away and on the third day the vehicle died out on me.
“I ended up going back to him to reject the vehicle and it went downhill from there.
“He told me ‘No, you’re not going to get your money back. There’s nothing wrong with the car’.”
Over the next two years she legally challenged Joseph Skudder’s company, which sold her the vehicle, two times and won.
But despite winning in the Motor Vehicle Disputes Tribunal and successfully fending off an appeal in the District Court she still has the faulty car and no refund.
Alexis Pantelides had a similar experience after he purchased a car from Skudder in 2021 for his elderly father. Except Pantelides’ car didn’t quite make it to three days.
“Well, I picked it up and drove it away from the car yard and I got literally a kilometre down the road at a set of lights and the vehicle stopped. It wouldn’t start again and I wasn’t able to put it into gear,” Pantelides said.
“Since then I’ve been in an ongoing dispute to try and get him to take the vehicle back.”
A deep dive into the Motor Vehicle Disputes Tribunal records found Pantelides and Latu weren’t the only ones.
Between 2021 and 2022, seven other customers who bought faulty cars from Skudder’s company also ended up at the tribunal - and in court - fighting for justice.
When Latu first went to the tribunal, Skudder was ordered to fix her vehicle within 10 days. It took him two months.
After months of hustling rides with friends and family, Latu says she was just relieved it was fixed.
“When he handed me the key and I went to start the vehicle there was a weird sound and it was the same sound it made when it died out on me,” she said.
“So I knew then that he didn't actually fix the problem. I tried to tell him and we ended up in an altercation.”
Fair Go has seen video footage of that verbal altercation and Latu admits to swearing and yelling at Skudder in what became a heated argument.
“It just blew out of proportion. I was trying to stay calm but I lost my plot when he called me ‘dumb’ and ‘ungrateful’. I was so pissed off I thought, ‘OK, you want to go, let’s go’.”
And she did go - back to the tribunal for the second time. This time, the car also had a separate fault – a leak in the radiator which resulted in a blown head gasket. Skudder maintains this is the result of Latu’s failure to maintain the vehicle, an argument the adjudicator rejected. An independent mechanic stated in a report to the tribunal adjudicator: “In my professional opinion the issues presented here with the car pre-date [Latu’s] ownership."
Skudder’s company was ordered to pay Latu $5401.25 and uplift the vehicle within 10 days.
But more than a year after that tribunal decision, the broken down 2005 Nissan Murano she bought is still sitting in storage in Ōtāhuhu gathering dust.
“It's been so long now. I was so close to giving up but I worked hard for this money. I'm a solo parent, got two kids. You're not stealing just from me but you're stealing from my kids.
“I'm frustrated.”
Pantelides shares her frustration. More than a year after he won his tribunal case, the 2013 Ford Focus he bought for his dad is still sitting in his driveway and hasn’t been driven since.
He’d planned to drive it to Wellington to his elderly father who was in need of a car. But, though it broke down less than an hour after he purchased it, it took nearly two months to be fixed.
Pantelides had to buy another car for his dad to use instead.
He went to the tribunal in July last year and the adjudicator found he was entitled to reject the vehicle from day one. Skudder was ordered to refund the full amount within 10 working days and uplift the vehicle.
“All up I paid $9,500 cash for the vehicle. I paid just under $500 for the first year's insurance, around about $250 to the courts for court fees. I've thrown away a plane ticket from Wellington to Auckland which I wasn't able to use, I’ve filled the vehicle with gas which hasn't been used,” he said.
“But to be honest that kind of money pales in comparison to the actual ordeal.”
Because Skudder is supposed to take back the vehicle, he has a legal claim to it so Alexis can’t even get rid of it.
“I can't just walk away from this anymore. I'm now in possession of the vehicle. I'm paying insurance on it. I'm storing it. I can't sell it and I can't return it to get my money back,” Pantelides said.
“And I don't get a response to phone calls, emails.”
Latu hasn’t seen or heard from Skudder since her hearing either.
“He’s actually ghosted me,” Latu said.
“I tried to show up to the car yard and it's totally gone. It's gone. We don't know where he is. We’ve got no contact whatsoever.”
Fair Go tried to reach Skudder at two recent addresses he’d listed in the Companies Register. One of the addresses turned out to be a hotel and the other was a boat pier.
The managers of both properties said they’d never heard of Skudder and confirmed no-one could reside or receive mail at the addresses.
The Companies Register shows Skudder has registered nearly 20 different companies in the last twenty years.
His latest, registered last year, is classified as a “financial service”.
Despite multiple appearances in the Tribunal and district court in 2021, the Motor Vehicle Trades Register renewed his trading licence again.
In 2022, Skudder received a $4000 Covid business grant for his company Forward Motion 101 Ltd which he used to sell cars.
“It's incredibly disappointing because you look at those organisations as providing some legitimacy,” says Pantelides. “It doesn't provide any protection at all.
“I would very much have liked to have just given up on this and walked away. I feel really let down by Joseph personally but I also feel let down by the NZ courts, the Companies Register and the Motor Vehicle Trades Register.”
The Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment - or MBIE - is in charge of the Motor Vehicle Trades Register and Companies Register. The department declined requests for an interview and initially sent a brief statement outlining the independence of the tribunal and the protections under the Motor Vehicle Sales Act.
After Fair Go sent more questions about Skudder’s conduct, Latu says a staff member called her asking if he’d complied with the tribunal’s orders.
The department then sent another statement stating it had “compliance action underway against Joseph Skudder in relation to the banning provisions in the Motor Vehicle Sales Act”.
It also said Skudder's company Forward Motion 101 (which traded as Easy Sell) was pending removal action from the companies register after a complaint in November last year but that there had been objections to its removal.
A spokesperson from MBIE’s head of Small Business Services said Skudder’s company received funding in 2022 as part of the government’s $50 million Covid-19 support package which was established to support Auckland Businesses following the extended lockdown.
Skudder’s company Forward Motion 101 Ltd was one of thousands who met the criteria and received business support.
It added that verification would be conducted into Skudder’s newly registered company Finance & Selling Solutions Limited.
Skudder declined requests for an interview but in a statement said it wasn’t unusual for registered traders to have matters heard by the Motor Vehicle Disputes Tribunal.
“From the 650 or so sales, we have had around nine hearings and are only aware of the two matters [Latu and Pantelides] that haven’t been resolved,” said Skudder.
He said he “deeply regrets losing his composure'' in the video seen by Fair Go but said Latu was “rude” and “argumentative” when asking for a refund.
Skudder appealed both tribunal decisions and his appeals were recently dismissed.
Days after MBIE sent its statement, the department placed Skudder and his company Forward Motion 101 Ltd in a five-year motor vehicle trading ban.
In a further statement, Skudder said he was working to resolve Latu and Pantelides’ cases as soon as possible but said that broadcasting and publishing their story would “definitely not help these disputes to be completed/settled quickly and get a ‘Fair Go’”.
Skudder said he would be asking MBIE to lift the ban.
After failing to comply with their tribunal orders, Latu and Pantelides say they’re pleased to see him finally banned, even if they’re still out of pocket.
Alexis is now awaiting a court hearing in late October after he applied through the courts to enforce the Tribunal’s order against Joseph Skudder's company.
“It’s pretty clear, he’s the sort of guy who does this repetitively and he’s very, very slick at it,” said Pantelides.
“I’m not going to give up,” said Latu, “I’m going to keep fighting to get my money back and if he doesn’t want to pay up I’ll keep pushing and hounding, because he came for the wrong one.”
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