{"id":480416,"date":"2026-06-16T16:57:12","date_gmt":"2026-06-16T16:57:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/480416\/"},"modified":"2026-06-16T16:57:12","modified_gmt":"2026-06-16T16:57:12","slug":"creditors-of-spqr-restaurant-lose-2-3-million-as-liquidators-wind-up-company","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/480416\/","title":{"rendered":"Creditors of SPQR restaurant lose $2.3 million as liquidators wind up company"},"content":{"rendered":"

Rupe has since been declared bankrupt<\/a> and banned from running a company<\/a> for eight-and-a-half years for alleged mismanagement that led to SPQR\u2019s demise.<\/p>\n

In their final report into the company, liquidators Christopher McCullagh and Stephen Lawrence of PKF Corporate Recovery & Insolvency confirmed there were no further recoveries available for distribution and the company would be removed from the register.<\/p>\n

ANZ Bank, which held a first-ranking general securities agreement (GSA), received $9855 from its claim of $263,557 in relation to overdraft facilities, credit card and merchant fees.<\/p>\n

Prospa held a second-ranking GSA over the company\u2019s assets and submitted a claim for $93,460.54 concerning a loan.<\/p>\n

Eight other claims were made by secured creditors totalling $100,210.<\/p>\n

Inland Revenue submitted a preferential claim of $1,066,868 for employer activities and GST arrears.<\/p>\n

The liquidators received 24 claims from the company\u2019s employees \u2013 classed as preferential \u2013 for $132,727 in outstanding wages and holiday pay.<\/p>\n

However, McCullagh and Lawrence said no funds were available for distribution to preferential creditors.<\/p>\n

There were a further 35 claims from unsecured creditors totalling $664,311.<\/p>\n

The liquidators said they realised $26,304 from the sale of the company\u2019s fixed assets comprising kitchen equipment and dining furniture.<\/p>\n

What happened to the $1.3m overdrawn account?<\/p>\n

McCullagh and Lawrence identified two overdrawn shareholder current accounts with a total value of $1,383,176.<\/p>\n

Both were in the name of Rupe, with one under a family trust of which Rupe was the sole director and shareholder.<\/p>\n

The liquidators said demands were made in relation to the shareholder current accounts.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne of the debtors, Mr C Rupe submitted a statement of his financial position to confirm that he does not have the means to repay the debt. Mr Rupe has since been declared bankrupt,\u201d the report said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe other debtor is a family trust related to Mr Rupe. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe were advised that apart from shares in the company [SPQR Limited], the trust does not own any assets, and the only trustee of the trust was a company which has now been struck off the register.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"FormerFormer SPQR owner and director Chris Rupe. Photo \/ Dean Purcell<\/p>\n

\u2018Really sorry\u2019<\/p>\n

SPQR shut its doors<\/a> in July 2024 after 32 years in business.<\/p>\n

Originally owned by cinematographer Stuart Dryburgh and film-maker Dorthe Scheffmann in 1992, Rupe bought SPQR in 1998 with Paula Macks, according to Viva.<\/p>\n

After the announcement of its closure, Rupe released a statement saying he was \u201creally sorry for the current situation\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cThanks so much for your understanding, Aucklanders. I know you loyally share the love I\u2019ve had for SPQR for the past 27 years.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Rupe has since been declared bankrupt and banned from running a company for eight-and-a-half years for alleged mismanagement…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":480417,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[34309,806,3952,138,1656,17397,305,12624,5268,5836,1132,130,3025,111,139,69,1118,2539,10270,5659,196934,131,810,12025,10000,203007],"class_list":["post-480416","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-34309","tag-as","tag-aucklands","tag-business","tag-company","tag-creditors","tag-have","tag-liquidators","tag-lose","tag-lost","tag-million","tag-more","tag-most","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-of","tag-restaurant","tag-restaurants","tag-say","tag-spqr","tag-than","tag-up","tag-wellknown","tag-wind","tag-windup"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/480416","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=480416"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/480416\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/480417"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=480416"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=480416"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=480416"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}