Police eye fraud accused house sale proceeds

Paul Rose worked as an electrical engineer for Mighty River Power.

Police are eyeing money from the sale of three houses owned by a couple accused of defrauding NZX-listed Mighty River Power.

Paul Kenneth Rose and Jane Clare Rose have both denied obtaining by deception charges laid by the Serious Fraud Office.

The Roses, both in their early 40s, were husband and wife at the time of the alleged offending, according to the Serious Fraud Office.

They are now separated, the High Court heard yesterday.

Paul Rose worked at MRP's Penrose gas-fired power station as an electrical engineer until December 2012 and it was part of his role to identify what equipment was required to be ordered or services provided for that plant, the SFO alleged when it laid the charges.

Rose, or companies under his control, allegedly issued invoices of approximately $2 million to MRP for "goods those companies sometimes didn't provide or services that were instead performed by Mr Rose himself or others", the SFO said when laying charges.

The SFO said that Jane Rose was also involved for some time in the alleged offending, which according to the agency took place between June 2005 and December 2012.

Property records accessed in September listed the Roses as the owners of three East Auckland properties, which had a combined capital value of $2.6 million.

The properties have recently been sold and it is understood the Roses' equity in them was around $1.5 million.

Police have applied to restrain the proceeds of the sales and the case was called briefly yesterday in the High Court at Auckland.

Interim restraining orders over these assets and vehicles associated with the couple were already in place and were likely to remain until the application was decided.

These orders have been varied to allow Jane Rose to retain the possession of a 2009 Audi A3, the court heard.

Matthew Goodwin, the lawyer appearing yesterday for the Roses, said both are challenging the scope of the orders sought by police.

The restraining application is likely to be argued in the New Year.

Mighty River Power chief financial officer William Meek said in September that any decisions around recovery options would be made by the company following the SFO's court action.