Steel & Tube fine reduced to $1.56 million

The Court of Appeal has reduced the fine Steel & Tube must pay for wrongly telling builders its reinforcing steel mesh had been independently tested against earthquake standards.

It pleaded guilty in 2018 to charges brought by the Commerce Commission, and was fined a total of $1.885 million after a hearing in the District Court.

That was raised to just over $2m after both parties appealed to the High Court with the company arguing the fine should be lower, and the commission arguing it should be higher.

But after a third hearing, Court of Appeal judges Forrie Miller, Patricia Courtney and Brendan Brown, reduced the total Steel & Tube had to pay to $1.56m.