• Jamey Bowring, 24, died after an explosion at the Salters Cartage site in September 2015.
• Ron Salter pleaded guilty to WorkSafe New Zealand charges and was sentenced to home detention in 2017.
• He has now agreed to pay $4 million to settle a “first-of-its-kind” criminal proceeds case taken by police.

An Auckland businessman will pay $4 million to settle a novel legal case taken by police following a fatal workplace accident.

Ron Salter and his family built Salters Cartage, a business that specialises in the disposal and recycling of hazardous wastes, including waste oil, from a single vehicle to a fleet of trucks running nationwide.

But the successful business hit the headlines for all the wrong reasons in September 2015 when a large tank at the yard in Manukau exploded, and killed a young man working onsite.

Jamey Lee Bowring,a 24-year-old contractor, was welding a catwalk near the top of the silo, and the force of the explosion threw him more than 100 metres.

The tank was labelled as holding diesel – a low-hazard substance – but actually contained a hazardous mixture of fuel waste.

The vapours are highly flammable but Bowring was never warned about the potential danger, and should not have been allowed to do any “hot work” near the tank.

A subsequent investigation by WorkSafe New Zealand prosecuted Salter for breaches of health and safety rules, but also for blatantly failing to comply with laws controlling the safe storage and handling of hazardous substances.

As well as being mislabelled as a low-risk hazard, the tank should also have had a “stationary container system test certificate”.Salter had been warned about needing the certificate on two previous occasions, in 2011 and 2015, but did not apply for approval.

The certificate would not have been given because the tank did not comply with legal requirements for venting, anchorage and earth connections. At the time of the fatal incident, none of the tanks at Salters Cartage had certificates.

When WorkSafe investigated, the issues that emerged led to a “prohibition notice” banning the company from using its recycled oil plant from September 2015 to March 2016. Despite that, WorkSafe alleged Salters Cartage Ltd started running the plant early in February 2016.

Inspections identified “potential ignition sources” in at-risk areas.

Salter pleaded guilty to the WorkSafe charges and was sentenced to 4 ½ months of home detention in October 2017. The company and Salter also paid fines and reparation of nearly $400,000.

But that was not the end of Salter’s legal woes.

Jamey Lee Bowring, 24, died after an explosion at Salters Cartage Ltd in Manukau in 2015. Photo / Supplied

Two years later, in a surprise move, the police were granted orders by the High Court to restrain Salter’s family home in Auckland, their holiday home on Waiheke Island, another property in Paerata, as well as the Salters Cartage business premises in Wiri.

The assets were frozen under the Criminal Proceeds Recovery Act [CPRA].The law allows a judge to grant restraining orders if there are reasonable grounds to believe the owner has benefited from “significant criminal activity”.

The law is most often used to confiscate the ill-gotten wealth of drug dealers, gang members and money launderers.

In a move described by different judges as “novel” and unusual”, this was the first time police had used the criminal proceeds law against a commercial business.

While Salters Cartage was a legitimate business, the police case was that Ron Salter knew the laws around the handling of hazardous substances and ignored them.

This meant the business was running unlawfully, the police alleged, and Salter had benefited by nearly $11m.

For five years, Salter had vigorously opposed the police case and a trial scheduled for seven weeks started in the High Court at Auckland last week.

However, after lawyers for the police gave their opening statement on Monday, the hearing was adjourned for negotiations to take place behind closed doors.

Under the Criminal Proceeds Recovery Act, settlements need to be approved by a judge.

The parties reappeared in the High Court at Auckland this morning where Justice Mathew Downs canvassed the history of the case, before approving the settlement deal in which Ron Salter, and Salters Cartage Ltd, would pay $4m.

Justice Downs said the company, Ron Salter and his wife had denied all wrongdoing beyond that already captured by their convictions under health and safety and hazardous substances legislation.

They had argued the police were prosecuting a test case and seeking to extend the criminal proceeds law beyond the situations envisaged by Parliament, and denied deriving benefits from criminal activity.

Justice Downs said the Police Commissioner acknowledged he would face difficulties proving Mrs Salter’s “knowledge of significant criminal activity”, and observed she had a relationship property interest in the properties.

But, per the settlement, Ron Salter and the company accept they had benefited from the offending under hazardous substance legislation to which they have already pleaded guilty. They also acknowledged they had breached a health and safety notice in 2015, Justice Downs said.

The High Court judge approved the $4m settlement, released the Police Commissioner from any undertaking regarding damages and ruled that each party would bear their own legal costs.

“It is broadly equivalent to the property that the commissioner considers would have been available to meet a profit forfeiture order had the commissioner’s case been successful against Mr Salter alone,” Justice Downs said.

Ron Salter declined to be interviewed after the court hearing. But in a written statement released to the Herald, Salter said he was pleased to settle the forfeiture case “after almost five years of fighting and significant cost to SCL [Salters Cartage Ltd] and my family”.

“While SCL would have liked to have taken the Commissioner’s test case all the way, to see whether cases like this are really what the CPRA is intended for, this proceeding has already taken long enough and cost us significantly,” Salter said.

“So we have made the hard commercial decision to cut our losses and be in a position to move on.”

Salter said he recognised the tragic loss of Jamey Bowring’s life and his company’s role in failing to prevent the fatal accident.

“That will not be forgotten and will continue to drive us every day to remain focused to avoid any reoccurrence. But as a company trading in a competitive industry, SCL also need to be able to move on and take up new opportunities so resolving this proceeding will allow it to do that.”

Ron Salter pictured during a previous interview with the New Zealand Herald. Photo / Nick Reed

Jared Savage covers crime and justice issues, with a particular interest in organised crime. He joined the Herald in 2006 and has won a dozen journalism awards in that time, including twice being named Reporter of the Year. He is also the author of Gangland and Gangster’s Paradise.

George Block is an Auckland-based reporter with a focus on police, the courts, prisons and defence. He joined the Herald in 2022 and has previously worked at Stuff in Auckland and the Otago Daily Times in Dunedin.