A couple who arrived in New Zealand and set up a French patisserie business cut a swathe of deceit before leaving the country suddenly. Tracy Neal explores the legacy left by French bakers Veronica and Didier Crevecoeur, whose trail of victims are reeling in their wake.
The crepes, gateaux, croissants and eclairs were once the talk of the town.
But the couple behind the sweet French fare turned out to be a recipe for disaster for some landlords and businesses in the top of the South Island.
They’ve been left shouldering debts left by Veronica and Didier Crevecoeur who, as it turned out, had a habit of not delivering on promises to pay their bills.
They arrived in New Zealand around 2018 and were believed to have left this year, about the same time legal action against them was triggered over debt on a commercial lease.
Inquiries by NZME since the court case in June have lifted the lid on a couple who some knew as “friendly”, even “quiet and nice”, and who brought a little taste of France to Picton, Blenheim and Nelson.
“We could have been in Paris,” said one neighbour of Le Posh patisserie in Nelson, who loved the aroma of pain au chocolat fresh from the oven, and coffee from a nearby roastery wafting through his house.
But, some landlords in the top of the South Island had a different view of the Crevecoeurs.
‘The worst tenants’
One commercial property owner in Blenheim claimed they were “the worst tenants” he had ever known.
“I’m 75 years old now and I’ve been in business since I was 19, and I’ve never struck anyone like them.”
The North Island-based businessman and director of an estate management firm says he was forced to evict the pair.
“In the end I didn’t give a s**t about the unpaid rent, I was just pleased to see the back end of them,” he said.
The owner of commercial premises in Picton where the Crevecouers launched the first of what would be four patisseries named Le Posh, said that despite the “wildly expensive” but “quiet good” food they had on offer, they often had an excuse about why they couldn’t pay rent, leases, or invoices on time, if at all.
She ended up locking them out, and waved goodbye to around $3000 in unpaid rent, angry they had not only ripped her off, but allegedly done it to others as well.
Then there was the owner of a home the Crevecoeurs once rented in Nelson, who says they struggled to get rent paid on time.
“There was always a story about where money was coming from.”
Another Nelson business left out of pocket for vehicle maintenance and repair work said at first the couple paid, accompanied with free baguettes, but that soon changed and the debt grew.
‘We were taken in’
An Auckland property investment firm owed thousands for unpaid rent on commercial premises in Nelson claimed the couple were masters of deceit.
“We are not novices at this, and we were taken in,” a director of the company said.
The Crevecoeurs also left a Marlborough homeowner $1000 out of pocket in rent owed on a beachfront home in Rārangi.
A decision by the Tenancy Tribunal in December 2019 showed the landlord had applied for termination of the tenancy, rent arrears and refund of the bond.
The Crevecoeurs were ordered to pay $1020 in rent arrears, but the Herald has been unable to determine if that money was ever paid.
According to NZ Company Office records, the couple registered a company named Gazillions Limited, in July 2020 but it was removed a little under two years later.
The company was classified as “internet only retailing” with a registered office in Blenheim.
Le Posh
The couple moved to Nelson around 2021 and set up a patisserie by the same name.
Le Posh, on the corner of Russell St and Haven Rd near Port Nelson, opened to media fanfare in January 2022. The Crevecoeurs told Stuff at the time they had “moved from Blenheim when the opportunity arose”.
They had planned to return to Australia to be closer to their children, but efforts were “stymied by the pandemic”.
They said Nelson was a “better fit” for their European flavours and fare.
“They appreciate us being here. More people are happy to have a French patisserie,” Veronica Crevecoeur said at the time.
They then opened another Le Posh in Nelson, in a residential apartment and retail complex near Tāhunanui Beach, but that’s where the New Zealand chapter to their story ended.
Unpaid rent
In the Nelson District Court in June, the couple were ordered to pay more than $29,000 in unpaid rent, damages and legal costs.
They didn’t turn up to court, but the Crevecoeurs’ son Alex, who responded to NZME’s requests to several family members via social media, said that, sadly, it was likely “the tip of the iceberg”.
The property investment firm, Tawero Holdings (No2) Ltd, from whom the Crevecoeurs leased the second Nelson premises in November 2022, filed court action when they abandoned the lease.
“They said they were going to retire and live half their time here and half overseas,” one of the workers at a neighbouring cafe told NZME.
According to the statement of claim filed by Tawero with the court, the couple took out a three-year lease on the second shop with an annual rent set of $20,000 (plus GST).
They left owing $13,175 in rent and outgoings.
Tawero Holdings sought, and was granted, a summary judgment of $22,547 against the Crevecoeurs, plus several thousand more in costs associated with re-letting the premises, plus damages.
A summary judgment application allows a court to resolve a case without a full trial when the defendant had no genuine arguable defence.
Judge Noel Sainsbury said in making the order the underlying basis was that the defendant had defaulted on the rent on premises leased to them by the plaintiff.
“Clearly, the defendants have no defence to the claim,” he said.
A spokesperson for Tawero, who did not want to be named, told NZME taking legal action was a decision not made lightly but “a lot of deception” had been at play.
“We are not novices at this, and we were taken in.”
He said the climate had been challenging post-Covid for tenants and landlords, but when people took advantage of others and were deceitful, it made it more difficult.
“We were let down and lied to.
“We just felt that in these circumstances, sometimes you have to take this sort of action to prevent these things from being perpetuated.”
The judgment granted included rent that hadn’t been paid and outgoings, plus a damages claim for the costs associated with the early termination of the lease held by the Crevecoeurs, and the subsequent re-letting of the premises.
They were also ordered to pay legal costs and disbursements of $6850 and interest of 12% per year on any non-payment.
Tawero also sought indemnity costs, on the basis the Crevecoeurs had “promised to pay, but had left”, but such costs were not normally granted, Judge Sainsbury said.
Where are the Crevecoeurs?
Inquiries by NZME into the whereabouts of the Crevecoeurs have failed to pinpoint their location. Efforts have been made to reach them via email addresses which appear to still be active, and via their social media accounts.
“Commonsense” would suggest where they were, their son Alex told NZME.
There were suggestions they were back in Australia, while Judge Sainsbury said in court he believed they were in Europe - possibly in France where Didier is from.
Many who NZME spoke with referred to an online site about the Crevecoeurs.
The site, set up by someone on Cloudflare which offered multiple security layers, said it was intended as a “public service warning” and that all information provided was based on reports from affected individuals.
The site claimed the Crevecoeurs were back in Perth with family, and “likely continuing similar schemes”, having suddenly left New Zealand earlier this year, leaving debts with “multiple businesses”.
It speculates they were “probably” looking to relocate to France, near Dieppe, where Didier Crevecoeur is from.
The site said Veronica Crevecoeur, 66, grew up in Paris, and that Didier was a chef in various big hotels, and ran restaurants and bakeries in various locations.
Few in the tightknit business communities of Nelson and Marlborough wanted to talk about it, mostly out of embarrassment, but NZME has heard some of the stories Veronica Crevecoeur allegedly cooked up to gain people’s sympathy.
Others claim they dished out personal loans and haven’t seen a cent in return.
The woman whose commercial premises the Crevecoeurs leased in Picton soon after they arrived from Australia in about 2018, was initially thrilled.
“I was excited when they approached me. Here were people who wanted to start a lovely French cafe.”
She said the food they made was good, but “grossly expensive”.
The property owner “turned the key on them” over their failure to pay rent, just before the Covid lockdown in March 2020.
“They’d been there about 18 months, and I had to chase them the whole time for rent. Didier always played the ‘totally surprised’ game, always saying, ‘I didn’t know’.”
They left, and took the Le Posh signage, which then popped up in Nelson.
“I think they just carted the signage around with them,” the Picton property owner said.
She believed the Crevecoeurs had operated businesses in Perth and Cairns.
Australian business records showed Didier Crevecoeur operated Paris Crepes Cafe in Western Australia from December 2012 until April 2016.
Information online showed two businesses by the same name in Western Australia - one in the High Street Mall in Fremantle, and the other in Subiaco.
However, the owners of the buildings where the two businesses operated said they had not heard of the Crevecoeurs.
The premises on the corner of Nelson’s Russell St and Haven Rd, where the initial Nelson Le Posh sprung up, are now up for sale.
There’s a sad collection of baking tins, tools and furniture stacked up against the window of the worn-looking building.
NZ Companies Office records showed the building was owned by Dharmendra Patel, who has so far failed to respond to NZME’s requests for comment on whether he was owed rent.
Gone so suddenly
Robin Whalley, who had been a regular buyer of the pain au chocolat, was surprised they had gone so suddenly, and even more surprised when he learned why, when NZME called him.
“We thought from the notice on the door they must have just gone for the weekend, and that they would be ‘back soon’, and then it never happened,” Whalley said.
The Nelson business left out of pocket for work done on the Crevecoeurs’ car said when the free baguettes dried up and the money due on invoice never arrived, their patience ran out.
“I’d go over and be very polite about it, and she’d [Veronica] say, ‘I promise you, I promise you, but don’t push me’,” the business co-owner and office manager, Tania, claimed.
She said the promises continued, that the money would arrive on a certain day.
“In the end I said to him [Didier], ‘how can you treat people like that’?
“And he said, ‘it’s my wife, it’s my wife’!
She said he once came over with a bottle of champagne but they still hadn’t been paid.
Alex Crevecoeur told NZME he was prepared to stand by his father, who he painted as a broken man.
“My father is only guilty by association as for reasons unknown to me, he let her [his mother] handle all business and financial matters.”
Tania agreed. She felt that Didier was “a bit caught out by her”.
“I think he was trying perhaps, but they’re both culpable."
