WorkSafe takes Bean Me Up cafe owner back to court after jail term

A Kaikōura business owner jailed for breaching the Food Act has been back in court for failing to provide proof her employees were vaccinated against Covid-19.

Bean Me Up owner Sharon Gertrude Rayner, who asked the court to address her only as “a living woman”, was prosecuted by WorkSafe in the Kaikōura District Court on Friday.

WorkSafe had taken Rayner to court before. She was fined $300 in April 2022 for refusing to display the required Ministry of Health QR code in 2021, and was imprisoned in December for two months for breaching the Food Act after she deregistered her own food plan in 2021.

On Friday, joined by a small group of supporters, Rayner refused to enter a plea on a charge of failing to produce evidence, namely Covid 19 vaccination records of her café workers.

READ MORE:
* Covid-19: Kaikōura cafe owner who showed fake QR code linking to anti-mandate page prosecuted by WorkSafe
* Jailed Kaikōura café owner refused to discuss alternative sentences, says judge
* By the numbers: The 23 days of New Zealand’s Parliament occupation
* Golf club to pay more than $15k to staff member sacked over vaccine refusal

WorkSafe said Rayner refused to show evidence the staff were vaccinated against Covid-19 during visits to the café in January and February last year. At the time hospitality and close-contact businesses were required to be vaccinated against Covid-19.

The charge was laid against Rayner in August, and she first appeared on the charge in October but refused to enter a plea.

Rayner said on Friday during a judge-alone trial she had “no legal jurisdiction to represent Sharon Rayner”, but asked the judge if she could have “written permission to represent the legal fiction Sharon Rayner”.

Judge Hix said he recognised that the person standing before him was the same person who he had sentenced to prison in December last year.

Rayner said that she did not “fail to do anything”, as said she supported her café employees in their choice not to get the Covid-19 vaccine.

“Vaccines are against my personal and Christian belief system, I made an informed choice, and I said no.”

Rayner told Judge Quentin Hix that her café “no longer exists”.

“The business has been destroyed,” she said.

“Everything that has gone on has caused hardship, it has caused anxiety throughout my whānau and friends.”

Judge Hix found Rayner guilty.

WorkSafe suggested a sentence of $1500 fine, but given Rayner’s “personal circumstances”, Judge Hix convicted and discharged Rayner with no further penalties.