Clive Peeters was an Australian electrical, computers, kitchens and whitegoods retailer with stores in Victoria, Queensland, New South Wales and Tasmania. Under the original owners, the first stores opened in Melbourne in 1973 and Brisbane in 2001. In 2005, Clive Peeters bought the Rick Hart chain of retail stores in

Western Australia Western Australia (WA) is the westernmost state of Australia. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Southern Ocean to the south, the Northern Territory to the north-east, and South Australia to the south-east. Western Aust ...

, however the stores continue to trade under the Rick Hart name. Clive Peeters stores carried more than 140 brands and over 20,000 individual models. Certain locations were acquired by

Harvey Norman Harvey Norman is an Australian multinational retailer of furniture, bedding, computers, communications and consumer electrical products. It mainly operates as a franchise, with the main brand and all company-operated stores owned by ASX-lis ...

(The Derni Group) in July 2010, who will continue to operate both retailers independent of their other major retail brands, Harvey Norman, Joyce Mayne and Domayne.

Internal fraud

In 2009 it was discovered that the Clive Peeters payroll manager, Sonya Denise Causer, had defrauded the company by falsely inflating the company payroll expense and then using her company

online banking Online banking, also known as internet banking, virtual banking, web banking or home banking, is a system that enables customers of a bank or other financial institution to conduct a range of financial transactions through the financial institut ...

access to transfer the difference between the actual and reported expense to bank accounts she controlled. Causer had stolen over A$20 million during the period November 2007 to June 2009 and used the money to purchase 43 properties and 3 cars. The company took

civil action A lawsuit is a proceeding by one or more parties (the plaintiff or claimant) against one or more parties (the defendant) in a civil court of law. The archaic term "suit in law" is found in only a small number of laws still in effect today. T ...

to have Causers' assets transferred to Clive Peeters.Carson, V and Battersby, L 2009 (12 August 2009
"Clive Peeters left reeling by $20m sting"
''

The Age ''The Age'' is a daily newspaper in Melbourne, Australia, that has been published since 1854. Owned and published by Nine Entertainment, ''The Age'' primarily serves Victoria (Australia), Victoria, but copies also sell in Tasmania, the Austral ...

'', Retrieved 23 May 2010.

Administration

Clive Peeters shares ceased trading in the

Australian Securities Exchange Australian Securities Exchange Ltd (ASX) is an Australian public company that operates Australia's primary Exchange (organized market), securities exchange, the Australian Securities Exchange (sometimes referred to outside of Australia as, or c ...

on Wednesday, 19 May 2010, after the company brought in McGrathNicol as voluntary administrators to try and sell off the business.

New management

Nik Papa was appointed General Manager in July 2010. Papa had previously been a

franchisee. On 11 August 2011, Harvey Norman Executive Chairman

Gerry Harvey Gerry Harvey (born 18 September 1939) is an Australian entrepreneur best known for being the executive chairman of Harvey Norman Holdings, a company which runs Australian retail chain Harvey Norman. He co-founded it with Ian Norman in 1982. ...

announced that the Clive Peeters brand was "stuffed" and tainted beyond repair, admitting that it was a bad business decision for Harvey Norman to take over Clive Peeters in the first place. As a result, 13 Clive Peeters stores and 5 Rick Hart stores will be converted to Harvey Norman stores (with the exception of two stores, which will be converted to Joyce Mayne stores), with the remaining four Clive Peeters stores and three Rick Hart stores being closed down and sold off, because of proximity to existing Harvey Norman stores in those areas.

Gallery

Image:Cpaspley.JPG , A Clive Peeters store Image:Cptvdisplay2.jpg , Audio Visual Image:Cpkitchens.jpg , Kitchen appliances Image:Cpwhitegoods.jpg , Whitegoods

References

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External links

Clive Peeters
Consumer electronics retailers of Australia Retail companies established in 1973 Retail companies disestablished in 2011 Defunct retail companies of Australia 1973 establishments in Australia 2011 disestablishments in Australia