Listen Now: 
The trial of former Wellington Tenths Trust chair Sir Ngatata Love on charges of defrauding his iwi could last up to three weeks.
The trial started yesterday at the High Court in Wellington, when name suppression was lifted.
Crown Solicitor Grant Burston told the court the crown’s case is, developer Redwood Group paid $1.5 million plus gst into the account of Sir Ngatata’s partner Lorraine Skiffington as part of a deal to develop Tenths land at Pipitea St into what is now the headquarters for the Security Intelligence Service and the Office of the Prime Minister and Cabinet.
The money was immediately used to pay off the loan on a house the couple had bought in Plimmerton.
Mr Burston says a copy of the agreement between Redwood and Skiffington, marked “Ngatata’s working copy”, was found in a bin collected from their home by a document destruction firm.
Sir Ngatata pleaded not guilty.
Suppression was also lifted from the fact that Sir Ngatata’s son Matene Love, a former Victoria University of Wellington senior lecturer, pleaded guilty last year to a charge of accepting a secret commission from Redwood and served six months home detention in Palmerston North.
Copyright © 2016, UMA Broadcasting Ltd: www.waateanews.com
RELATED NEWS
