Rapid Lift has gone into liquidation.

Graeme Dillon, former director of collapsed forklift company Independent Forklift Services (IFS), will stand trial on 17 February 2014, charged with 11 counts of fraud.

The federal Director of Public Prosecutions is prosecuting.

It follows an investigation by the financial services regulator, the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC), into several transactions by IFS (Qld) Pty Ltd and its north Queensland subsidiary, both now in liquidation (Forkliftaction.com News # 594).

ASIC alleges that, from November 2006 to May 2007, Dillon dishonestly induced Capital Finance Australia Pty Ltd to provide finance to the companies by lodging false invoices for forklift purchases.

In a separate matter, the Queensland Office of Fair Trading (OFT) tells Forkliftaction.com News it is in the early stages of an investigation into a complaint made against the liquidated Brisbane-based forklift supplier Rapid Lift, for which Graeme Dillon worked. His wife, Jody Dillon, was the director.

The complainant alleged money was paid to Rapid Lift for a forklift that was never delivered.

The complaint to the OFT follows a string of similar complaints to Forkliftaction.com News this year (Forkliftaction.com News # 619) from several disgruntled customers, mostly small businesses, who alleged they’d paid thousands of dollars to Rapid Lift for forklifts they had yet to receive.  

A search of Queensland supreme and district court civil files reveals four actions relating to Rapid Lift, one of which lists Jody Dillon and Rapid Lift as defendants in a claim for money owing.

Robson Cotter Insolvency Group was appointed Rapid Lift’s liquidator after a June general meeting of members of the company resolved the company be wound up.