Dear Allan Hubbard. Please take responsibility for the mess created by the boom and now bust of the South Island's largest financial institution, writes Bernard Hickey.

Police and Fire Safety officers are investigating after a body was found in a burnt-out campervan in the South Island this morning.

Allan Hubbard's finance company is near receivership and is understood to be in last-minute talks with the Govt and overseas investors to avoid NZ's largest corporate collapse in decades.

South Canterbury Finance is likely to remain in a trading halt into next week as it awaits fresh capital.

South Canterbury Finance had its securities halted from trading on the NZX debt market pending an announcement on a new investor.

The value of some investments were overstated by at least 25 per cent.

Allan Hubbard is a genius, says one investor who says she has doubled her money in 12 years.

Thousands of people using the internet to their support for embattled Timaru businessman Allan Hubbard.

A march in support of Allan Hubbard and his wife Jean proceeded through Timaru's main street today and finished up outside South Canterbury Finance.

Hundreds have rallied in Timaru to support Allan Hubbard.

A nurse has been struck off the register for punching a "vulnerable" elderly man in the mouth while she was working at a resthome.