It may also lead to one business considering the way they operate after being burnt by the job they had to do for Dart Engineering.
Dart Engineering was liquidated early last month after an application by Inland Revenue. The first liquidation report was released earlier this week and showed the company owed nearly $5.4million.
Business owner Regan Williamson had travelled to Canada before Christmas last year, following his wife and three children, who had moved there to live.
He had told staff he would be back, but he did not return and is believed to have set up an engineering business in the city of Red Deer in central Alberta.
He could not be contacted yesterday.
Central Otago Powdercoating owner Ross Wood said he was owed $1500, but was not counting on getting it back.
He was asked to do a job for Dart Engineering just before last Christmas, carried out the job and that was the last he heard from Mr Williamson.
‘‘The thing that pisses me off is just the way he has treated all his employees. These people worked hard for him, kept the place going and this is what he turns round and does. What a mongrel,’’ Mr Wood said.
‘‘I mean some of his employees are probably married with a mortgage and whatever, and then he turns around and does that. What kind of a human being are you?’’
He called Mr Williamson a ‘‘bastard’’ for treating people this way.
There was no point in trying to chase Mr Williamson to Canada. He (Mr Wood) had spoken to his accountant and the money would be written off.
Mr Wood said going through this experience may lead to him changing his business model — getting businesses to pay before they pick up the work.
‘‘That sort of makes it a bit tough for me as well as my business and other people’s business, other businesses that use me.
‘‘But you’ve sort of got to have to protect yourself, don’t you? Protect yourself from these people.
‘‘I look at the list of debtors on there and there’s a hell of a lot.’’
There were 114 unsecured creditors and 27 secured parties listed in the first liquidation report.
Keen Engineering owner Casey Keen said he had fixed some machinery for Dart Engineering and was also owed about $1500.
Mr Keen did plenty of small jobs for Dart Engineering and said usually payments were slightly late, but they did get paid.
‘‘They started with a bloody hiss and a roar. It just seemed he came from Queenstown, they picked up a whole lot of staff from other places and got it cranked up straight away.’’
Mr Keen was not counting on getting paid the amount owed and though it was something the business could stomach it was still $1500 he did not have. Lots of small businesses would be the same.
It was the first time a non-payment of this sort had happened to his business, he said.
The only positive was there would be one less business in what was a competitive engineering industry in Dunedin.
Kara Transport co-owner Corey Kara said Dart Engineering had struggled to pay its bills for the past 18 months.
He declined to say how much he was owed, but said it was significant.
He was shocked when he did get payment for the January invoice.
For Mr Williamson to head to Canada and break off contact was ‘‘b.......’’, he said.
‘‘He just needs to face it, to be fair. I mean, hopefully he’ll get caught at some point ... I just can’t believe he’ll do that and get away with it.
‘‘I think deep down, I think he’s done that with a lot of people. He doesn’t care about people.’’
People might say they only lost a small amount, but it was still hitting them.
‘‘Like, money’s money, and we’re a small business. We can’t really afford to be going through situations like this. It’s hard enough as it is, especially where it is at the moment with fuel and everything.
‘‘And here we’re having ... [to] cop s... like this, you know? So, pretty disappointing.’’
