Accused of putting Queensland park and wildlife staff at risk, Cambridge-based Bevan and Kylan Diprose were ordered by the High Court to disconnect Iridium GPS tracking connections for the Queensland park authority currently managed by their company v2track. It was alleged the connection dispute is part of a simmering argument between the brothers Diprose and US-based Tracplus including disputed allegations that Bevan Diprose dishonestly took over some Tracplus clients.
The High Court was told Tracplus Global Ltd agreed in May 2020 to buy out v2track which then managed about 600 Iridium GPS client connections. Hardware installed in aircraft, vehicles and boats linked to the Iridium satellite constellation enables tracking of precise GPS locations. A valuable income stream exists for companies providing real-time tracking services, recording and managing this data. In December 2021 some nineteen months after its purchase of v2track’s client base, Tracplus agreed to sell some of its client connections back to a new company set up by the Diproses: v2track (2022) Ltd. The two sides have differing views about what has been sold. Tracplus alleges Bevan Diprose misrepresented himself to the Iridium consortium as a Tracplus employee, covertly arranged the transfer of an excessive number of Iridium client connections from Tracplus to v2track (2022) doing so slyly over a long weekend. He denies any wrongdoing.
Evidence was given that their dispute reached a head when one client, Queensland Parks and Wildlife Services, requested v2track disconnect its service which at that time tracked 109 park service vehicles and aircraft; it wanted to use Tracplus. Queensland Parks says v2track’s service was inadequate. It was losing connections for various amounts of time. With staff working in the outback, any connection downtime could prove fatal in the wrong circumstances.
v2track stalled on the requested disconnections. Its dispute with Tracplus over terms of the 2021 contract had first to be clarified, it said. When Tracplus complained that delay meant Queensland staff were being put at risk, v2track said the remedy lay with Tracplus; it could replace Iridium hardware in Queensland Parks vehicles with its own product. This was estimated to cost about $250,000. Instead, Tracplus sued in the New Zealand courts, claiming v2track was causing loss by unlawful means. It alleged v2track is wrongly retaining Queensland Parks’ existing Iridium connections with the intent of preventing Tracplus from earning income with its alternative service.
Justice Campbell ruled that on preliminary evidence before the court, Queensland Parks was no longer under contract to v2track and was free to find a different provider. In the interim, v2track was ordered to disconnect its Queensland Parks’ Iridium tracking connections. v2track was left to come back to court to sort out its dispute with Tracplus.
Tracplus Global Ltd v. v2track (2022) Ltd – High Court (1.07.22)
22.116