MacAir boss sued TONY RAGGATTFebruary 12th, 2009 TERRY Byrt, the...

MacAir boss sued

TONY RAGGATT

February 12th, 2009

TERRY Byrt, the litigious boss of failed airline MacAir, is facing legal action.

Listed Perth-based company Wavenet International Ltd is suing Byrt and his company, Ansett Resources and Industries Pty Ltd, over its dealings with a Monto mining tenement.

Wavenet last year agreed to buy a 50 per cent interest in one of Mr Byrt's exploration tenements for $3 million.

However, the company terminated the agreement after providing $2 million in deposits and loans, claiming
the project area had been misrepresented.

In a statement to the Australian Securities Exchange on September 19, Wavenet chairman Mick Stroud said they became aware the tenement had been misrepresented during a due diligence review.

He said Wavenet had been told historic drilling had identified an exploration target of between 170 million and 180 million tonnes of thermal coal.

"Specifically, the drilling program which was represented to have been undertaken on the Monto tenement did not in fact occur on the ternement to be acquired but had been undertaken on an adjacent tenement," he said.

Wavenet has been seeking to recover its $2 million and another payment of $100,000 to Trident Capital Pty Ltd for facilitating the transaction.

Mr Stroud told the ASX last week Mr Byrt had agreed to repay the funds, but nothing had been received.

"Wavenet ... will now vigorously pursue all avenues to recover the funds owing, including commencing proceedings against Mr Byrt, Ansett Resources and Industries Pty Ltd and Trident Capital Ltd," he said.

Mr Byrt said he was not aware any misrepresentation had been alleged.

"I'll have to do something about that," he said.

Mr Byrt said there was an agreement in place between the parties but declined to elaborate.

Wavenet confirmed yesterday no funds had been paid.

Last week, a day before receivers shut down MacAir Airlines throwing its 200 staff out of work, Mr Byrt announced he would sue the State Government for damages because no due diligence had been undertaken by the Government and subsidies to fly remote areas had been too low for MacAir to operate profitably.

Transport Minister John Mickel said MacAir had stated the price it could provide the services in a tender and the Government had accepted it.