The club approached one of their members, Aaron Drever, to help organise the sale of one its greens, in order to raise funds for the struggling club.

An investigation has been launched after land from a struggling Auckland bowling club was flipped for half a million dollars.

The Avondale Bowling Club was in financial trouble when it approached club member Aaron Drever​ about urgently selling one of its greens to raise funds.

Drever, a disgraced and struck-off real estate agent, helped organise the land sale in December 2016.

DAVID WHITE/STUFF The Avondale Bowling Club sold its upper green, left, for $300,000. It was then on-sold the same day for $825,000.

Records show the land was sold to his aunt Beverley Spain for $300,000, and then flicked on the same day to property investor Jonathan Michell for $825,000.

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Bowling Club president Pat Bell told the District Licensing Committee (DLC) in August 2017 the club sold the land for $300,000.

This was less than half of its two-year-old rateable value of $710,000, and in the midst of a heated property market.

"He was a pretty good talker," Bell said about Drever in August. "I think we might have made a huge mistake."

Club treasurer Rhianne Tippett told the DLC that the club's committee appointed Drever to get someone he knew to sell the land "and get us money quickly".

CHRIS SKELTON/STUFF Real estate agent Aaron Drever was stripped of his licence in 2016.

Michell said he initially thought he was buying the property from the club.

But just before settlement his lawyer realised it was not being purchased from Avondale Bowling Club Inc, but from Avondale Bowling Club Limited.

Avondale Bowling Club Limited was registered in the name of Aaron Drever's aunt Beverley Spain two weeks earlier.

SIMON SMITH/STUFF Avondale Bowling Club members arrive for the District Licensing Committee hearing. At rear is former president Pat Bell, and at centre is former treasurer Rhianne Tippett.

Spain lives in a Housing New Zealand property in Pt Chevalier, but the company was registered to an address across the road.

Stuff has been unable to contact Beverley Spain.

A Real Estate Agents Authority spokeswoman confirmed it was investigating the sale of Avondale Bowling Club's green.

SIMON SMITH/STUFF The entrance sign to the once-proud club now sits strewn on the ground, broken.

﻿REGRET AT THE DEAL

Michell said he had previously bought and sold property through Drever, when he was a licensed agent.

"Obviously I wish I had never done this transaction," he said, of the bowling club land sale.

DAVID WHITE/STUFF The bowling club has had trouble with its liquor licence. Police accused the club of acting as a tavern in 2015.

"Quite frankly mate, I'm a bit shocked. It's not a game I knew I was participating in. Let's put it that way."

Drever declined to comment for this story.

In August, when Stuff first enquired about the sale, Drever said there was no real estate agent involved as it was done through lawyers.

DAVID WHITE/STUFF Past presidents look down on patrons at the Avondale Bowling Club, established in 1912.

"They [the club] asked whether I knew anybody that might be interested in purchasing that, and I said I would ask some people," he said.

"If they hadn't have got any deal across the line when they did then there wouldn't be a club there today."

RNZ reported Drever invoiced the club $17,250 for "professional advice" over the sale of the bowling green - but the club refused to pay.

SIMON SMITH/STUFF Folders of information, including invoices dating back to 2003, sit dumped outside the club.

Central Park Legal lawyer Bruce Johnson has acted for Drever, and registered Avondale Bowling Club Limited for Beverley Spain.

Johnson said all three parties in the sale of the green were independently represented, and all were aware that it was an on-sale.

"I'm a lawyer and details of my transactions are confidential."

A CLUB IN TROUBLE

When Stuff visited Avondale Bowling Club this week its grounds were in disrepair - with broken water tanks, a leaking roof, a few smashed windows and its main sign broken and lying on the ground.

In December last year, a majority of the failing club's members wrote to the regional sporting body and asked it to take over its running.

Auckland Bowls general manager Phil Vyver said its representative Gerald Holst was now running the club and the committee had been removed.

"We've put someone in place to look into things, and that investigation is ongoing. While that's happening, I'm not really in a position to comment."

Former club member Paul Davie was at a meeting of the club on February 19.

Holst told those present that the money from the land sale had gone, and the club was now $40,000 in debt, Davie said.

"But there was no clarification about how that money was spent or what was done with that money."

LICENCE STRIPPED

Drever had his real estate licence stripped in November 2016 after eight charges of either misconduct or unsatisfactory conduct brought against him since 2011, and $34,000 of fines.

He had voluntarily suspended his licence from that January. He lost a High Court appeal against his suspension in September 2017.

TIMELINE OF THE SALE:

November 16, 2016 - The bowling club committee resolves to sell the land, and Drever told them he would work to get an offer to the club by November 23, the club secretary's notes show.

November 21, 2016 - The company Avondale Bowling Club Limited was formed in the name of Beverley Spain, Drever's aunt.

November 25, 2016 - Avondale Bowling Club Limited signed a sale and purchase agreement with Jonathan Michell for $825,000.

December 5, 2016 - The land changes hands, twice in one day.

December 21, 2016 - The date of the sale and purchase agreement from Avondale Bowling Club Inc to Avondale Bowling Club Limited for $300,000 - to be settled, on December 5, a date in the past, and subject to a "private agreement".