Field’s appeal
September 21st, 2010 at 4:00 pm by David FarrarThe Dom Post reports:
Lawyers for New Zealand’s only member of Parliament to be prosecuted for bribery and corruption, Taito Phillip Field, have begun his appeal against conviction.
Field, who turns 58 on Sunday, is serving a six years jail term for bribery and corruption, and obstructing justice. …
Ms Cull said that what Field was accused of was not bribery, which she defined as receiving a benefit to influence the behaviour of an official in office.
Field had done nothing that was illegal in helping with the immigration cases of the Thai tradesman who worked at various properties field owned, she said.
At best he received gratuities, which was not an offence.
Field is entitled to an appeal.
The arguments put forward by his lawyer are seemingly shared by the Labour Party, as they went out of their way to never say they accept their colleague was corrupt – the only statement they made was they “acknowledge” the verdict.
Who knows – if Field wins his appeal, he may still be in time to get a list nomination for them.
Tags: Taito Philip Field
September 21st, 2010 at 4:14 pm
“He only did it as a lark and never used the passport”.
“No”.
“She only signed it for charity”…
And on it goes, pathetic excuse-making for the corrupt and venal who think they have the moral and intellectual superiority to make laws which control the rest of us.
I hope the Appeal Court rules six years jail was an inappropriate sentence, and instead imposes a lengthy period of supervised community work genuinely helping the poor and underprivileged of South Auckland (that’d be a first for Taito) during the day and, for the first part of the sentence, home to barracks at night. If he worked hard and behaved then after a few years he might get a few nights at home each week. And so on.
Vote:September 21st, 2010 at 4:15 pm
DPF – a bit like the arguments that Garrett’s lawyer put forward being shared by the Sensible Sentencing Trust and Rodders?
Rodney Hide said “We’ve always had the hardest policies on dealing with criminals. And we make no apologies for being the toughest party. There are other parties that pretend to be tough. They talk tough. They sound tough. But you’ve got to look closer. Don’t take them at face value. Examine their record.”
I guess he meant to say “examine their criminal records”??
Vote:September 21st, 2010 at 4:16 pm
Maybe Field, Carter and Garrett could start their own party. All boxes ticked. PI, pink, with Law and Order. Should drag in a few votes.
Vote:September 21st, 2010 at 4:28 pm
pmofnz .. Sue Bradford would add a communist factor as well so that would great .. now what could they call the Party??
Vote:September 21st, 2010 at 4:28 pm
Reminds me a bit about Aussie history. An American colleague of mine was visiting here some years ago, and he went across to Oz (as you do). As part of the entry to Oz, he had to fill out a form saying whether or not he had ever had a criminal conviction. He responded “I didn’t know you still needed one to get into Australia”.
Vote:September 21st, 2010 at 4:39 pm
Throw away the key and make sure the cell is tiled with no carpet.
Vote:September 21st, 2010 at 4:45 pm
So many parallels with Garrett. Especially how Hide, McVicar and by proxy John Key support Garrett and his disgusting crime. No good for Field and co. No good for Garrett and co.
Jail the lot of them.
[DPF: Yes, of course faking a passport application 26 years ago, is so disgusting yet 26 convictions of bribery, corruption and perverting the course of justice by an MP - while an MP, is just an example of an MP working very hard]
Vote:September 21st, 2010 at 4:51 pm
Ah m@tt, so desperate to pin the Garrett affair on National and Key. How desperate are Labour becoming? If a dog shits in the street in Birkdale, will you try blaming National and Key for that too?
Vote:September 21st, 2010 at 4:54 pm
He was also convicted of perjury. Is he appealing that too?
Vote:September 21st, 2010 at 4:57 pm
And while you are at it m@tt you mos well throw Phil of it in the cells to. His crime, A1 hypocrisy. Do these numb nuts think the people forget. Poor old Phil of it is screaming for Hides head but his criminal administration defended bloody Field for years, what total arseholes these wasters are.
Vote:September 21st, 2010 at 4:57 pm
pmofnz .. Sue Bradford would add a communist factor as well so that would great .. now what could they call the Party??
…new Labour…
Vote:September 21st, 2010 at 4:57 pm
Except that Garrat was delt with by the justice system without him whimpering about and it was 1/4 of a century ago. If you’d tried to thrash a leftie for something they’ve theoretically paid the price for half a life time ago you’d be shitting your nappies matt.
Fuck me jailing someone for something hes already done his time for, what kind of a mental case are you.
Vote:September 21st, 2010 at 5:00 pm
DPF, at least Clark’s government wasn’t propped up by a lowlife who covered up the theft of a dead kid’s identity, or run by a PM who covers up for the lowlife to keep them all in ‘baubles’. Hypocrite is simply inadequate to describe these political gangsters.
[DPF: Clark's Government actually defended Field. Far far far worse. You are comparing something done 24 years before they were an MP with ongoing bribery and corruption as an MP]
Vote:September 21st, 2010 at 5:05 pm
Tom, Winston Raymond Peters, 65, unemployed of Herne Bay…..propped up Labour, stole $158,000 of taxpayers money, never have it back, took illegal donations, lied about it to a Privileges Committee and defended the whole way by Michael Cullen….and Labour will deal with him again in a heartbeat given the chance.
Vote:September 21st, 2010 at 5:08 pm
So many parallels with Garrett. Especially how Hide, McVicar and by proxy John Key support Garrett and his disgusting crime. No good for Field and co. No good for Garrett and co.
What parallels? I seem to remember Field and Labour jumping through hopes to avoid answering questions and having the facts heard.Labour are still in denile about it.By contrast Garrett’s issues were well in the past long before joining ACT (indeed around the time he was a Labour supporting lefty
) He fessed up to ACT before joining and has left the party rather than cause further damage to it.Hide supported him until he was presented with the questions over the affidavit and then told Garrett he was on his own.When did Clark or Labour do anything similar re Field?
The difference in the cases is like night and day.
Vote:September 21st, 2010 at 5:10 pm
Tom you are either a moron or were hit in the head by a bus.
Garatt is fired, no one has tried to protect him. Garatts offences were not related to being in government.
Fields offences were committed using his job in government. Helen tried her best to protect him, and to this date has never admitted he did anything wrong. Her attempted cover up was a complete disgrace. In fact, I believe Helens actions were as corrupt as Fields. No, Helen never fired Fields, he was simply unable to do his job from prison.
Vote:September 21st, 2010 at 5:11 pm
Tom Gould….if I was you I would swallow a big dose of “shut the fuck up” if you want to avoid looking more of a cock than you do for your last post.Whales handed you a bitchslap….bet it stung.
Vote:September 21st, 2010 at 5:21 pm
I usually don’t take pleasure in seeing someone making a complete dick of themselves… but Tom Gould having his partisan ass handed to him on a plate did make me smile.
Vote:September 21st, 2010 at 5:32 pm
@ Murray 4:57 pm
Do try to keep up, Murray. The allegation is that Garrett committed perjury, a very serious crime, 5 years (not 1/4 of a century) ago in his affidavit at sentencing on the passport fraud charge. I agree that at this stage there is no evidence that Hide, McVicar, or Key, had until last week any reason to suspect perjury by Garrett.
So m@tt’s comment is OTT in that regard, but your comment appears to be primarily defending Garrett. Let the legal process play out, but I think that if he is found to have committed perjury he should, like Field, go to jail.
Vote:September 21st, 2010 at 5:32 pm
DPF, at least Clark’s government wasn’t propped up by a lowlife who covered up the theft of a dead kid’s identity, or run by a PM who covers up for the lowlife to keep them all in ‘baubles’. Hypocrite is simply inadequate to describe these political gangsters.
QUICK QUICK!!!!! A bird just shit on a wind screen at Pak n Save Albany! Bet it was that prick John Key’s fault!!!!
Vote:September 21st, 2010 at 6:46 pm
“Do try to keep up, Murray. The allegation is that Garrett committed perjury, a very serious crime, 5 years..”
Oh for heavens sake. People perjure themselves everyday in court. Hell, even Judges do it.
Vote:September 21st, 2010 at 6:48 pm
Blubber Boy, unemployed of Herne Bay? How is that different from sickness beneficiary of Botany? Hypocrite. You have the ability to run a blog, and a political campaign, and a legal defense, but not to get a job and earn an honest living like the rest of us? You make Hide look plausible. In fact, you make Garrett look plausible. Listen, land whale, haul your ass off the couch and get a job. Why should I pay tax to support the likes of you? Bludger.
Vote:September 21st, 2010 at 7:09 pm
Ahhh I love the smell of lefty desperation. “So many parallels” ? If you see ANY parallels between Garrett and Field, you have totally lost your grip on reality or are utterly dishonest. Little from column A and a little from column B, I suspect.
Vote:September 21st, 2010 at 7:11 pm
TG, you are a gutless anonymous coward…bet you wouldn’t say that to my face.
On the flip side I have said many times to Winston’s face that he is a duplicitous prick, usually as he is ranting that he will sue me. Still haven’t seen the document servers though.
So just to recap, your rebuttal of my argument that Labour were propped up by a lying, mendacious, thieving prick was what?…oh that’s right a spew of vitriol that says more about you than it does of me.
For the record I don’t live in Botany, so you can’t even get your insults right.
Vote:September 21st, 2010 at 7:22 pm
Labour should not be blamed for being propped up by a “lying, mendacious, thieving prick”. To do so is like blaming someone for being mugged. But Labour can be blamed if it props up that person in return. Which it did.
Likewise, it is absurd to blame National for being propped up by a “lowlife who covered up the theft of a dead kid’s identity”. It is Garrett’s choice to do the propping, not National’s. National would, however deserve blame, if it propped him up in return. Which it does not.
Vote:September 21st, 2010 at 7:31 pm
Do not under-rate the legal technicalities of defining what is bribery of MPs.
Ex-WA premier Brian Burke was convicted of stealing party campaign donations. His conviction was quashed on appeal because the donations were ruled to be his ‘to do as he pleases’. A WA ALP party secretary testified how donations to the party were used to buy suits for a good candidate who was of modest means and could not afford to buy them himself. The candidate needed to look good in public and on TV.
Rod Blagojevich is facing a retrial for trying to sell Obama’s old senate seat. Was he selling the appointment for personal profit or filling it with loyal democrats who proved their party loyalty by raising campaign donations for his re-election? How many US ambassadors are long-time major party donors asnd fund-raisers?
Vote:September 21st, 2010 at 7:46 pm
Prey tell … IS THIS APPEAL OF A LABOUR LOWLIFE BEING FUNDED BY YOU AND ME PER COURTESY OF LEGAL AID AND IF SO WHY HASN’T PHIL GOFF PONIED UP BECAUSE HE (LABOUR) DEFENDED TFF TO THE BITTER END?
Vote:September 21st, 2010 at 7:55 pm
Is Fatty Field getting legal aid for his appeal?
Vote:September 21st, 2010 at 8:05 pm
@Tom Gould
Vote:“The coward threatens when he is safe.”
September 21st, 2010 at 8:29 pm
Taito must have some dirt to spill, imagine if in his appeal he gets some top Labour brass and some x-Labour scrap metal hauled in to be cross examined now he’s got nothing to lose. Go Taito, haul a few more of the corrupt ones out for public humiliation.
Vote:September 21st, 2010 at 9:50 pm
wow. just … wow.
Vote:September 21st, 2010 at 11:54 pm
Field is entitled to an appeal.
Vote:Hell, that must be an oversight on the part of Simon Power then. No doubt that’s next to go. Can’t have convicted criminals wasting the courts’ time with appeals.
September 22nd, 2010 at 7:50 am
…and Chris Carters “sick leave” is about to end. Shocking!!!
Vote: