Retailer Clive Peeters, who is currently attempting to sell $20 million dollars worth of property that was purchased using money that the company claims was stolen from them by a former paymaster, is now having to explain why their share price is gyrating.

In a letter to the stock exchange today, Clive Peeters CFO Steve Rowarth, claimed that the company was not aware of any issues that would affect the trading in their stock which has risen from $0.33 cents last week to $41.5 cents this week.

 “Trading in October, November and December 2009 is material to the overall result for that period,” it said on Tuesday in a response to a query from the Australian Securities Exchange.

Clive Peeters noted that its operating performance for the first quarter of 2009/10 had been “materially affected” after it requested a trading halt on its shares on July 31 and a voluntary suspension from trading on August 4. The stock was reinstated on August 24.

The halt was called after the company discovered that Sonia Causer the former payroll manager for the company had been transferring money up to the value of $20M from the company for two years without being detected.   This had “created a climate of uncertainty for customers and suppliers, affecting sales and causing significant interruptions to trading stock throughout the months of August and September”, Rowarth said.

“It took until late September for trading stock to normalise.” He added.

In the 2008/09 financial year, Clive Peeters made a statutory net loss of $8.97 million, after sales fell 7.1 per cent to $496.86 million and it made an expense provision for the funds misappropriation.