A South Island car dealer who attempted to fraudulently claim hundreds of thousands of dollars under the Clean Car Discount Rebate has been sentenced to home detention and community work, RNZ reported.
Between March and April 2023, Gardyne applied for rebates on 119 Nissan Leaf vehicles, each valued at $3450, by falsely claiming they were demonstration cars. The rebate scheme, available from April 2022 to December 2023, allowed low-emission vehicle owners to apply for the discount, while dealers could only claim for vehicles registered to themselves and used as company, courtesy, or demonstrator cars for at least three months.
According to RNZ, NZTA became concerned about the unusually high number of claims submitted by Gardyne’s company, Hamish Vehicle Sales Ltd (HVS), and launched an investigation. It found that Gardyne had already sold and exported 90 of the vehicles to Australia.
NZTA confirmed that only one claim had been paid out before being recovered, and the dealer later withdrew the remaining 118 claims through his lawyer.
Gardyne appeared in the Dunedin District Court, where he was sentenced to nine months and two weeks of home detention along with 200 hours of community work.
RNZ reported that NZTA national manager of road safety regulations, Brett Aldridge, said the outcome sent a clear message to the wider industry that such behaviour was unacceptable and would remain a priority for the agency. He added that the sentencing was the result of many months of meticulous work and noted that the scale of the fraud was significant. According to him, the punishment should serve as a strong warning to others in the vehicle industry that NZTA would investigate and prosecute breaches when detected.
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