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The Daily News
December 26, 1997
The year when high fliers felt heat of the law
by Shani Naylor, NZPA
The Winebox inquiry, the fate of Judge Martin
Beattie and secret witnesses dominated the judicial scene this year -- along
with a range of unusual cases.
DESPITE appearing to go on for ever, the Winebox inquiry into Cook Islands tax deals finally ended mid-year -- after
nearly three years, 13,000 pages of transcript and more than 26,000 pages of
documents.
And despite the extensive evidence -- ranging from the tedious to the
sensational -- commissioner Sir Ronald Davison found no proof of fraud.
The 784-page report, released mid-August, exonerated the Inland Revenue
Department and the Serious Fraud Office in their handling of transactions
detailed in the "winebox" of documents related to Cook Island
tax deals by European Pacific.
Treasurer and Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters, whose allegations in
Parliament sparked the inquiry, was not convinced, however. His legal
challenge of Sir Ronald's ruling, that there was no tax fraud or evasion in
the Magnum transaction, is still before the courts.
What to do with district court Judge Martin Beattie was a widely debated
question.
In August, Judge Beattie was acquitted of 45 fraud charges, involving
$10,000, over irregularities on his travel and accommodation expenses while
he was on circuit court duties in Northland.
Despite calls for his resignation, he was appointed to sit on the ACC appeals
bench after it was decided it was inappropriate for him to return to criminal
or civil jury trials.
Justice Minister Doug Graham said the Government had no power to remove the
judge since he had been found not guilty by a jury.
In October, Auckland District Law Society members passed a no-confidence
motion in Judge Beattie and the New Zealand Law Society is considering taking
High Court action against him.
Judge Robert Hesketh, despite having taken advice from Judge Beattie, was not
so lucky. He pleaded guilty to eight charges of fiddling travel expenses to
the tune of $815.
In September, Hesketh was struck off as a lawyer after pleading guilty to disciplinary
charges.
The use of secret witnesses became a hot issue after the Court of Appeal in
August ordered a new trial for Nomads gang leader Denis "Mossie"
Hines on a charge of assault with intent to cause grievous bodily harm. The
court said the identity of a witness should not have been kept secret.
THAT ruling threw other trials into disarray. Gang members walked free as
police canned prosecutions which involved witnesses who did not want to be
identified. Other trials were postponed.
Justice Minister Doug Graham swung into action and introduced fast-track
legislation to give courts new powers to order anonymity.
Two prisoners who stayed in the public eye this year were convicted murderer
David Bain and convicted child abuser Peter Ellis. Both claim they are
innocent.
Former All Black Joe Karam has led a high-profile campaign to free Bain, the Dunedin man who is
serving a life sentence for the June 1994 slaying of his mother, father,
brother and two sisters.
In his book David and Goliath, Karam outlines alleged flaws in the police
handling of the Bain case. But another book, Mask of Sanity, by writer James
McNeish, claims Bain killed his family to escape them.
The campaign to free Ellis, the Christchurch
childcare worker convicted of sexually abusing children at the Civic Creche,
gathered pace in November when a 20/20 television programme raised doubts. In
November, police commissioner Peter Doone agreed to hold an investigation
into the police handling of the case.
Barrister Judith Ablett-Kerr QC has petitioned Governor-General Sir Michael
Hardie Boys for a free pardon for Ellis and called for a full inquiry into
his conviction.
Another prisoner, convicted rapist David Dougherty, walked free after
spending three years in jail for crimes he was later acquitted of. Dougherty
was convicted in 1993 of the abduction and rape of his 11-year-old neighbour.
He is fighting for compensation.
High-profile murder cases continued to dominate headlines this year.
Perhaps the most bizarre was the trial which didn't take place. Accused
killer Christopher Lewis electrocuted himself at Auckland's Mt Eden prison in September
before he was due to go on trial for the murder of mother-of-three Tania
Furlan.
It was later revealed that Lewis (33) had a long criminal history --
including being arrested in 1981, aged 17, for an attempted shooting of Queen
Elizabeth.
Stephen Anderson, a paranoid schizophrenic, was found to be insane when he
went on a killing spree at Raurimu, in the central North
Island, on February 8, shooting dead six people and wounding
four.
He was found not guilty of murder and attempted murder on grounds of insanity
and is detained as a special patient under the Criminal Justice Act.
DEAN Wickliffe, probably New
Zealand's best-known long-term prisoner,
found himself back behind bars in September after being found guilty of the
murder of a former friend.
Labourer Hayden Poulter was labelled New
Zealand's first serial killer after being found guilty
of the murder of three sex industry workers in Auckland.
Two other cases which prompted public outrage were the shotgun killings of
Naenae bank tell Bill Brown and Caledonian Hotel bottle store worker Glen
Payne in botched robberies.
Nine people -- eight men and one woman -- were convicted for the two
killings.
In June, former nun Stephanie Gouldstone was found not guilty by reason of
insanity of the murders last year of an elderly Hungarian-born couple -- who
she believed were representatives of the devil -- and was committed to a
mental hospital.
And Northland man Matthew Oates, who shot and killed an armed intruder in his
Mangonui home last year, had a murder charge against him dismissed after a
High Court jury failed to reach a verdict.
Among prominent fraud cases were the 13 people convicted of ripping off the
Government's student loan scheme to the tune of $1 million.
Former high flier, ex-Pacer Kerridge executive chairman David Phillips faced
fraud charges totalling $15 million. His trial lasted three months and he was
acquitted on three charges of fraud. Four remaining charges, on which the
jury could reach no verdict, were later dropped.
Another high flier -- literally -- was Kiwi Air founder Ewan Wilson who is
facing five fraud charges relating to his budget airline which collapsed in
September 1996. His trial will take place next year.
Former auditor-general and ACC boss Jeff Chapman was found guilty in March of
fraud and initially sentenced to six months' jail, increased on appeal to 18
months. He was convicted of 10 charges of fraudulently using documents,
totalling $54,594. He was released from prison before Christmas.
Chapman's successor at ACC, Gavin Robins, has also been charged with fraud.
The Serious Fraud Office alleges he misused $1.4 million of the corporation's
money to finance the purchase of three aircraft for his personal benefit. His
brother, Anthony, also faces a charge of defrauding ACC.
Businessman Selwyn Cushing's long-running defamation case against Deputy
Prime Minister Winston Peters continued to be successful, despite Peters'
partial victory in his High Court appeal when his defence of parliamentary
privilege was accepted.
The court upheld damages of $50,000 and costs of $75,000 against Peters, who
has said he will fight the case "all the way" to the Privy Council.
The case relates to Peters' allegation that Cushing offered him a bribe.
And three lesbian couples appealed last year's High Court ruling against
legal recognition of same-sex marriages under the 1955 Marriages Act. The
Court of Appeal ruled in December that homosexual marriages were barred under
the 1955 Marriage Act.
In a landmark ruling, a district court judge decided in February that a Maori
man did not need a licence to fish for trout. An appeal was heard in the High
Court in December.
As usual, there remained a steady stream of people appearing in court whose
behaviour made you wonder what planet they came from.
Hokitika farmer George Cook, 78, certainly made no secret of his
intergalactic origins. Despite claiming he was a descendant of aliens, Cook
successfully sought the return of his firearms licence in Greymouth District
Court in August.
Another West Coaster, from Grey
Valley, claimed he was
the Greek god Pan and had supernatural powers. He was found guilty on three
charges of raping his wife, who, during cross-examination, admitted she had
taken astral holidays on Venus.
And to show that Kiwi ingenuity is still alive and well, Auckland
man David Overend declared himself the "numero uno hidden cam jockey in New Zealand".
His achievement? Developing a tiny pin-hole video camera for the toe of his
sandshoe which he angled under the clothing of thousands of unsuspecting
girls and women.
The 36-year-old pleaded guilty to nine charges under the Films, Videos Publications
Classifications Act 1993 and was jailed for 21 months, fined $7000 and denied
access to computers.
Equally misguided was the case, in June, of the Upper
Hutt man convicted of aggravated cruelty to a goldfish -- Moby,
as he was fondly known. Moby died when he was thrown out a second-storey
window during a domestic dispute in October last year.
But in terms of sheer bizarreness, the case of Palmerston North's
cross-dressing cop would have few equals. In June, Paul Jones was convicted
of stealing a purple dress from a Palmerston North fashion store. At the time
of the offence he was dressed as a woman. This month he lost a High Court
appeal.
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