Fraud and rebirthing charges against the bosses of pocket-sized Braaap Motorcycles have been adjourned until October 13 after a brief mention in a Sydney court yesterday.
Braaap GM Toby Wilkin, 33, and founder Brad Smith, 29, deny the charges brought by the NSW Property Crime Squad of “rebirthing” 85 motorcycles.
The Government has suspended identification plate approvals for four of Braaap’s motorbikes because of noncompliance issues, while a suspension against Braaap’s ST250 has been lifted.
The company continues to trade and the bosses say they have signed contracts with six more countries for bikes.
In 2005, at the age of 17, Brad sourced factories in China to make bikes to his specifications.
He was named 2008 Australian Young Entrepreneur of the Year and Tasmania’s Young Australian of the Year in 2010 while the company won the Australian Retailers Association’s Small Business of the Year four times.
Braaap experienced sales growth last year of 400%, including international markets.
Earlier this year Braaap issued a safety recall of about 200 bikes over the absence of stickers and stamps on the exhaust and other parts.
Toby referred to it at the time as a “glitch” in their internal auditing process.
“We’re fairly young in the industry as we’ve mainly done dirt bikes and only done road bikes for the past three years with a lot of growth,” he told Motorbike Writer.
“We’ve made a change in the checking and quality assurance and are now making sure everything is spot on.”
Braaap Moto 3