Alex Swney stole from ratepayers to fund a lifestyle he believed he was entitled to. Photo / Getty Images
Alex Swney stole from ratepayers to fund a lifestyle he believed he was entitled to. Photo / Getty Images
Alex Swney seemed a personable enough chap whenever I ran into him at events around Auckland City.
Clearly others saw through him, given his failure to be elected to any of the many public offices he sought, but I found him nice enough.
A little overtly hip, but then he was running Heart of the City, an organisation designed to promote central Auckland and the cool shops and businesses that made their home there. Those trendsetting stores have gone now - scattered to Ponsonby, Britomart and Newmarket - and so too has Swney.
He was sentenced to a five-year, seven-month prison term this week for stealing public money.
His reason? He thought he should have been paid more. (For the record, it's believed his salary was around $200,000).
He felt he was an unsung hero, whose efforts to promote central Auckland had gone minimally rewarded. He was a bright light, a star, in the biggest city in the country and he wanted the lifestyle that went with his over-inflated sense of self. And if Heart of the City wasn't going to pay him enough to fund that lifestyle, then by crikey, he'd take the money himself.
Ratepayers? What did they matter? They were beige, ordinary people who didn't have vision and big dreams like Swney.
They didn't deserve to live in a gorgeous piece of real estate in the trendiest part of Auckland. They probably wouldn't appreciate it. But Swney would and Swney did. And to hell with not being able to pay the mortgage. He'd just fabricate another invoice and hey presto - the money arrived in his account.
Of course, the rigour of the accounting systems that provide checks and balances on organisations that contract to the council should be brought into question. Clearly, given the length of time that Swney's offending went undetected, procedures will have to be tightened.
But Swney has only himself to blame for spending the next however many years detained at Her Majesty's pleasure. His defence would have to be the most pathetic and piss-poor excuse I've heard. He took the money because he thought he was worth more. What on Earth did he expect the judge to say? "And you are, Mr Swney - case dismissed."
I don't think so.
The other thing that galls is that Swney will serve his 18 months or two years at a minimum security prison and then he'll come out and resume the same lifestyle he left behind. He reportedly put the Ponsonby home where he lived with his family into a trust just weeks before Inland Revenue laid tax evasion charges against him. I presume he was only trying to protect his family, but most families suffer when one of them commits a crime. It shouldn't be allowed.
Rod Petricevic of Bridgecorp was sentenced to six-and-a-half years in prison in 2012. Photo / NZPA
Remember the odious Rod Petricevic of Bridgecorp? He was the master of hiding his luxury lifestyle assets. The Porsche. The yacht. The shadow company run by a "personal friend" who happened to be an "ex-model".
Although the tax department managed to get its hands on some of Petricevic's prized stuff and flogged it off, they didn't come close to recouping the $459 million of investors' money lost when Bridgecorp collapsed. Still, there must have been a little bit of satisfaction for investors to see the "menoporsche" going under the hammer.
Petricevic, too, believed he was entitled to the good life. He still does. He was sentenced to six-and-a-half years in prison in 2012, and should have been out by now. But the Parole Board has denied him an early release because psychologists have reported that Petricevic doesn't think he's done anything wrong.
The arrogance of these men is unbelievable.
David Shaida also stands out as another example of the deluded. He was sent to prison for drug trafficking in 2004. At the time, he was a member of the Northern Club. He had three kids at King's and managed to crawl his way on to the school's board of governors.
He'd come from a wealthy and entitled British/Iranian family and was used to the good life.
However, unlike his old man, he didn't have much of the way in business smarts and his attempts to set up numerous companies failed dismally. His job as an export manager at a table mat and coaster company didn't pay him enough to fund the sort of lifestyle he believed he deserved so he became a drug trafficker.
And he even failed at that. I would have a modicum of sympathy if these people were addicts themselves.
Gamblers, druggies, trapped in the thrall of a dreadful addiction.
But to steal from others, to perpetuate misery, simply to send their kids to private schools and drive flash cars?
To lose their reputations and to cause their families humiliation and despair so they can call Ponsonby or Remuera home? It's pathetic.
