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Reinstatement for bailed MBIE employee formally declined

Updated: May 26



In March 2024 the owners of Ameribuild Ltd were arrested while trying to flee the country, and charged with fraud-related offences after allegedly fleecing customers who had ordered and fully paid for double-glazed windows they never received. 


Jason Westmoreland and William Manning appeared in the Hutt Valley District Court, were bailed, and put Ameribuild into liquidation all in the same week.  Liquidator’s reports indicate that Ameribuild is around $2.5 million in the hole.

Name suppression was granted for Westmoreland and Manning, but not Ameribuild.  So when we reported on this on 4 April 2024, we blurred their faces and named the company.  Name suppression lapsed on 12 November 2024, and The Post didn’t muck around.


On 18 March 2025 bail conditions were modified for Westmoreland so that he could visit his native America, but not for Manning who remains in the Wellington area.


We were aware that not long after the couple were charged, Westmoreland was dismissed from his job.  Manning was suspended from his job at the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE), an employment investigation was carried out, and on 14 March 2025, after being paid for a year for doing nothing, he was sacked.


Mainstream media reports chart the Ameribuild boys’ various attempts to deflect responsibility and play the victim, blaming the accountants, the media, the customers, the suppliers - anyone but themselves.  We can probably add Geoff O’Sullivan, Member of the Employment Relations Authority, and Manning’s former manager Karin Schofield (who Manning sued personally without success), to that list.


You read that right - William Manning raised a personal grievance in the Authority which is being determined over two stages – reinstatement and compensation.   


Anxious customers, irate boss


The 13 May 2025 determination tells us something we didn’t know – that in the weeks before Westmoreland and Manning tried to flee the country, there was already an employment investigation:


[4]  Although the reason for dismissal is made clear through the 14 March 2025 letter, there is a background leading up to the dismissal which forms an important part of the factual matrix. In the period prior to his dismissal, Mr Manning had been on a lengthy period of suspension. On 26 February 2024, MBIE had commenced a formal process in relation to concerns it had that Mr Manning had been:

• Selling or promoting his company’s products to MBIE employees using MBIE resources during work hours;

• Using his company login to access MBIE’s Teams system;

• Using MBIE images as part of his personal design portfolio page on the internet;

• Using MBIE employee names on his personal design portfolio page on the internet; and

• Providing inaccurate or incomplete information in relation to his declared involvement in his company, Ameribuild.


[5]  A meeting to discuss the matters was scheduled for 6 March 2024, however, on 5 March 2024, Mr Manning went on sick leave.


Incredibly, despite Westmoreland and Manning running Ameribuild Ltd as a side hustle, they managed to cause losses to customers and suppliers in excess of $2.5 million.


[27] Mr Manning’s prime concern is that should he not be interimly reinstated he will be left without income.


And that’s actually not correct.  If he doesn’t have a job, he can go on the dole, and that will be his income.


Mainstream media article



Smokescreen


Perhaps unsurprisingly, reinstatement on an interim basis was declined by Member O’Sullivan.  The determination notes that the substantive matter on whether MBIE is liable for monetary awards will be heard on 28 May. 


It is difficult to see how that could succeed, given that these proceedings appear to be an attempt to undermine the Crown’s prosecution efforts by creating a civil (employment) law smokescreen.



Tristam Price - Editor



 
 
 

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