[7] In February 2012, the Oamaru police charged a 40-year-old man with careless driving causing death and injury,[8] and he was found guilty in August 2013.

In the mid-1950s he provided the backing for Doug Shears and Helicopters New Zealand Ltd. Also in the 1950s, Hubbard gained control of South Canterbury Finance, a small-time lender to local businesses and households.

They acquired South Canterbury Finance (SCF) by 1963 from a group of businessmen including a member of the Todd family.

The "originally modest" company began to achieve "real size" after buying Canterbury Finance from Humphrey Rolleston in 1986, in return for a 23% holding in Southbury Group, the owner of SCF and Hubbard's other assets.

[13] Hubbard was considered the driving force behind the company's growth as it ultimately became the largest financial institution in the South Island of New Zealand.

[14] In June 2010, Allan Hubbard stood down as Chairman of South Canterbury Finance and was replaced by Bill Baylis.

[15] On 31 August 2010, South Canterbury Finance asked its trustee to place it in receivership after negotiations over a recapitalisation deal failed.

The charges related to a variety of allegedly fraudulent transactions which had a total estimated value of approximately $1.7 billion.

[17] The charges included entering the Crown Guarantee Scheme by deception, omitting to disclose a related party loan of $64.185m from SCF to Southbury Group and Woolpak Holdings, failing to disclose related party loans of $19.1m from SCF to Shark Wholesalers, and breaching the crown guarantee scheme by lending $39m to Quadrant Holding Limited.

[21] In 2013 charges against Brown and Hutton were dropped, leaving the former chief executive (McLeod) and two former directors (Sullivan and White) to stand trial.

[22] On 20 June 2010, the New Zealand Government placed Allan Hubbard, his wife Jean Hubbard and his business Aorangi Securities and seven charitable trusts into statutory management, with Trevor Thornton and Richard Simpson of Grant Thornton New Zealand Limited appointed as statutory managers.

The review of the Securities Commission concluded that many of the loans were inadequately documented, appeared to be unsecured and contrary to instructions from investors.

There was widespread support for Allan Hubbard[27][28] and a rally was held for him on 26 June 2010 in Timaru attended by thousands of people who protested against the investigation.

[32] On 11 May 2011, Allan and Jean Hubbard filed judicial review proceedings in the Timaru High Court to challenge the decision to place them into statutory management.

Grant Thornton asked the High Court to decide how to distribute the fund given the lack of a prospectus and given that the 'largely fictional' investor statements had not been reconciled to investment assets for three years.