The Serious Fraud Office says the guilty plea yesterday by an Auckland Council manager to corruption charges shows the dangers in not questioning a culture of gratuities. Barrie Kenneth James George, 69, this morning at the High Court at Auckland pleaded guilty to two charges of accepting bribes as a public official when he took gifts worth $103,580 between 2005 and 2012. The gifts included cash, and lavish overseas holidays for George and his family. SFO Director, Julie Read welcomed the guilty plea...

The identities of Justices of the Peace disciplined for incompetence, making false allegations or misusing their title for personal gain are being kept secret by the Ministry of Justice.In the case of the above JP Denis Selwyn Callesen of Keri Keri, the Crown Law Office even halted a private prosecution against Mr Callessen after evidence emerged that Mr Callessen and his former secretary Robin Morris had perverted the course of justice.

The Ministry believes the privacy of...

Dealings with Saudi sheep farmers, Hollywood, and Judith Collins' relationship with Chinese company Oravida are likely to have played a part in making the country look more corrupt, with New Zealand dropping down anti-corruption scales. That's what an ethics professor's saying after Transparency International's Corruption Perceptions Index for 2016 ranked New Zealand as the fourth least corrupt country in the world - our worst ranking since 1998. Associate Professor Tim Dare said it's because th...

Sir Terence Arnold’s past conduct would likely preclude his ability to become a judge in any other law-abiding country, let alone be awarded a knighthood for his services to justice in New Zealand. Sir Terence is generally known in the NZ legal community to have engaged in criminal activity as Solicitor General serious enough that it could have landed him in prison had the matter gone to trial. Rob Moodie, the lawyer representing Margaret and Keith Berryman in a long-r...

After several high profile drug cases involving members of the New Zealand Police and the legal profession, the New Zealand Justice Forum today called for the mandatory drug testing of all officers of the Court.

These recent convictions have shown that the legal professions, like other segments of New Zealand society are not immune from the ravages of drugs and alcohol, leading to delusional behavior. Forum spokesperson Mark Adams said today; “ Whether it is half...

Omens of threat to an ordered society, perceived or real, can provoke the most sensible citizens to willingly forfeit their freedoms. After 9-11, Americans paradoxically clamoured for new laws which limited their right to assembly and freedom from search and surveillance. To those who protested, the suspicion mounted over what they had to hide. Few things give more power to an autocracy than a war against a vague threat, and the gullibility of the masses escapes notice of few prone to a...

Seven years ago, a drunk driver ploughed into a car containing sisters Sania and Danielle King. Seven-year-old Sania was killed; Danielle, 9, survived.It is hardly surprising that the girls' grieving parents, Neville and Veena King, have been protective of Danielle ever since. So when she came home this year with injuries allegedly sustained at the hands of police, it cut deep. The Hamilton family claim Danielle, now 16, was "thrown around like a rag doll" by officers trying to break up an o...

No one believed at the time it was happening, but it became evident that hundreds of New Zealanders had been denied their rights of appeal when, in 2002, the Privy Council determined in Taito v Queen, the New Zealand Court of Appeal had engaged in systemic abuses of due process. Fa’Afete Taito was first named appellant (of many) in that defining appeal. In 2011, in the landmark Supreme Court decision Chapman v Attorney General, another one of those affected appellants lost any consequent right ...

The Office of the Judicial Conduct Commissioner must be the greatest affront to justice in New Zealand. Recently High Court Justice Toogood struck out...

Opposition parties are calling on Prime Minister John Key to dump John Banks as a minister despite police deciding not to take any action against the MP over donations to his mayoral campaign. Police said today there was insufficient evidence to charge Banks, despite finding he knew about $50,000 donation from internet entrepreneur Kim Dotcom and a $15,000 donation from SkyCity ahead of his 2010 Auckland mayoralty campaign. The donations were listed as anonymous. Dotcom claimed he discussed the ...

Irish private investigators have been in New Zealand chasing €455 million (NZ$700 million) that Ireland's once-richest man is reputed to have hidden in the South Pacific. Irish courts have found tycoon Sean Quinn, his son Sean Junior and nephew Peter conspired to put €455 million out of reach, rather than repay the now nationalised Anglo Irish Bank. The bank had to be propped up in when the Irish economy collapsed in 2008. Quinn owed €2.8 billion on property investments but got a large c...

This article from the Otago Daily times in 2009 expains how thw old boys network does it-

A law professor who is helping to revolutionalise...

A criminal investigation was begun in June 2011 into an undercover police officer's confession that he lied in court and wrongfully sent at least...

Associate Judge David Gendall has a well earned reputation for ignoring the law by taking a "blinkered" view of statute, precedent...