Finances were volatile - Bridgecorp's Rob Roest

Rob Roest, who held Bridgecorp's purse-strings, has told the Bridgecorp trial that wild fluctuations in the firm's finances was normal.

Mr Roest was sworn in to the witness box at Auckland High Court yesterday, having just watched the robust Crown cross-examination of his former colleague Rod Petricevic, during his four days in the witness box.

Now it's Mr Roest's turn to give evidence in his defence on Financial Markets Authority charges his mislead investors in the company's 2006/2007 prospectus and associated financial statements.

A third director Peter Steigrad is due to arrive in New Zealand to give evidence in his defence next week.

Bridgecorp's June 2007 collapse left 14,000 investors $459 million out-of-pocket - an average of about $33,000 each.

During examination from his lawyer Paul Dacre, Mr Roest - Bridgecorp's former financial controller - told the court that Bridgecorp stopped lending in 2005 due to of issues within its associated company in Australia, he told the court. From then on, the focus was to get liquidity back into the company.

Mr Roest said in 2005 Bridgecorp had "virtually no cash", but in early 2006 it had about $35 million.

The company had "repeated troughs" with money, then no money, he said.

Mr Roest said he was happy with the material in Bridgecorp's 2006/2007 prospectus, which he signed, and is now under scrutiny of the court.

He did not think further steps should have been taken in the sign-off process.

Mr Roest, 55, told the court he had no criminal convictions, other than driving offences.

He returned to New Zealand, from working in the Pacific, to become Bridgecorp's financial controller in 2008, reporting to Mr Petricevic.The pair initially shared an office.

Mr Roest became a Bridgecorp director in 2006 and chairman of the credit committee, which approved all Bridgecorp's loans, when Gary Urwin resigned Jan 2007.

Fellow director Mr Urwin ealier pleaded guilty to the Financial Markets Authority charges and awaits sentencing.