PHOTO: SUPPLIED Russian businessman Mikhail Khimich claims to be stuck overseas due to a medical condition, unable to attend court in New Zealand.
A Russian businessman has failed to appear in the Auckland District Court for the second time to face charges related to drink driving.
Mikhail Khimich, a New Zealand resident since 2013, was charged three years ago over refusing police requests for ID and a blood sample after being pulled over for allegedly driving whilst drunk.
Khimich’s lawyer said in court on Friday the 60-year-old was overseas and “in a pretty serious situation medically”, which prevented him from flying.
But Judge Andrea Manuel was not moved. She said she had viewed his latest medical certificate and deemed him “fit to to return to New Zealand to stand trial”.
Khimich once co-owned and remains a director of Waiwera Thermal Resort, which ran the defunct Waiwera hot pools, north of Auckland.
In 2018, Waiwera Thermal Resort made all staff redundant ahead of a six-month refurbishment of the pools, but never re-opened. It went into liquidation in February 2019 and the formerly popular facility is now derelict.
According to the first liquidators’ report by Staples Rodway, published in March, Waiwera Thermal Resort owed Waiwera Group Limited $2.1m, Inland Revenue $584,481 and unsecured creditors $1.1m.
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