Two truck shop operators have been stung with a combined fine of $171,500 for not giving borrowers adequate information about their contracts - some of whom were paying many times the standard retail price for items.

Goodring and Betterlife were sentenced in the Auckland District Court.

They are the first truck shops sentenced under strengthened Credit Contracts and Consumer Finance Act 2003 (CCCFA) laws for lenders which came into force last year.

Goodring was fined $98,000 for breaches of the CCCFA, and the Financial Service Providers Act. Betterlife was fined $73,500 for breaches of the CCCFA.

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Goodring and Betterlife had earlier pleaded guilty to 28 charges and six charges respectively under the CCCFA, relating to their lending practices.

Both companies failed to provide borrowers with the legally-required information and the information was also not provided in a clear and concise way, as required by the Act.

Goodring faced two additional charges under the FSPA. Under that Act, lenders must be registered on the Financial Service Providers register. Despite being aware of this requirement, Goodring was not registered.

In sentencing the companies, the judge acknowledged that these were the first prosecutions under the increased penalty maximums applying to misleading or unclear lender disclosure. She said that both Goodring's and Betterlife's terms and conditions suffered from "serious and significant deficiencies" and accepted that they would have been extremely difficult or impossible for the debtors to read or understand.

Commission General Counsel Mary-Anne Borrowdale said that the sentences were a result of the Commission acting on the problems it found during its year-long project on the mobile trader industry.

"We have been actively enforcing the amended credit laws since their introduction and they are important in protecting some of New Zealand's more vulnerable consumers. We regarded the conduct of Betterlife and Goodring as serious because of the deficiencies in their loan contracts. Although the penalties given in this case were more than previously, we are considering whether they are adequate to address the non-compliance that we are seeing."

Betterlife and Goodring are based in Auckland and usually operate from a truck or through using door-to-door sales staff.

They sell consumer goods on credit at significantly higher prices than mainstream stores.

Goodring has been selling branded hoodies to customers for $159, well in excess of in-store prices, and one Betterlife customer purchased an iPhone 5C for $2401 to pay off in instalments when these phones typically retail for around $600.

Borrowdale said it was not the end of the Commission's enforcement action against mobile traders and lower-tier lenders.

"We have a good number of other court cases and active investigations into mobile traders. These companies sell high-priced goods to vulnerable consumers on credit in order to fund the purchase. We have found that a concerning number of mobile traders and lenders do not comply with the law, and we are taking action to change that", she said.

The Commission has prosecuted six mobile traders this year, including Goodring and Betterlife and has another 14 investigations under way.