In February Stephen Borlase was sentenced to five and a half years in prison. Photo / Jason Oxenham
In February Stephen Borlase was sentenced to five and a half years in prison. Photo / Jason Oxenham
A mortgage-free property portfolio worth at least $4 million, bank accounts containing hundreds of thousands of dollars, and a classic 1963 Ford Fairlane are among assets of a corrupt roading contractor seized by police.
The haul relates to police efforts to seize the proceeds of crime following the country's largest-ever bribery prosecution where Stephen Borlase - the former head of roading contractor Projenz - and Murray Noone - a former senior manager at Auckland Transport - were last year convicted in the High Court of bribery and corruption.
The case related to a pattern of payments from Projenz to Noone, totalling more than $1m over seven years, which Justice Sally Fitzgerald found were related to the latter's role in awarding contracts worth tens of millions of dollars to Borlase's firm.
In February Borlase was sentenced to five and a half years in prison, while Noone was given a term of five years.
Borlase appealed his conviction and sentence at the Court of Appeal in Wellington in a half-day hearing earlier this week, and the justices reserved their decision.
Lawyer Ron Mansfield, acting for Borlase, did not return requests for comment about the appeal or freezing orders.
The freezing orders, covering assets worth $8.6m, were imposed on September 19 with the High Court justice agreeing with police they needed to be made without notice given the "dishonest nature of Mr Borlase's offending".
Justice Fitzgerald, in delivering her verdict in the criminal trial last year, had this to say about the week Borlase spent giving evidence in his defence: "In the main, however, I did not find Borlase to be a credible witness. The main reason for this was that, in seeking to explain the various payments and provision of benefits, his evidence often flew in the face of common sense and logic."
According to property records the three pieces of real estate covered by the order are all mortgage-free and all were acquired during the period of Borlase's offending.
Projenz's former headquarters occupy the first floor of a building in a commercial park in Albany. The property was purchased for $1.41m in March 2006. The company for many years had former police officers who ran a private investigation firm as upstairs neighbours.
Former offices of Projenz in Albany.
A three-bedroom house in Mt Eden, listed in company filings as the Projenz boss' residence prior to his term of prison, was acquired in December 2008 for $1.85m.
A two-bedroom house in Hahei, said in a police press release to be a bach, was bought in September 2013 for $750,000.
Two-bedroom house in Hahei.
Ownership of the house and bach are listed in the name of Borlase's wife and RLA Trustee Services No 51, while the commercial premise is in the name of Projenz Holdings. Police submitted to the High Court these parties were "entities associated with Mr Borlase".
2011 Jeep Grand Cherokee.
Also caught in the police dragnet were three cars: a late-model Mercedes-Benz A180; a Jeep Grand Cherokee, and; a classic blue-and-white 1963 Ford Fairlane.
Ford Fairlane.
The freezing orders also locked two bank accounts, at Kiwibank and the Bank of New Zealand, held in the name of the Borlase Civil Trust.
The freezing orders prevent the covered assets being sold, transferred or borrowed against, and the Criminal Proceeds (Recovery) Act puts the onus on Borlase to prove the assets had been obtained lawfully or cede ownership.
Proceeds of corruption Police have seized assets worth $8.6m linked to Stephen Borlase, a roading contractor imprisoned for bribing Auckland council officials.
THE HAUL: •Home on Disraeli Street, Mt Eden. Rateable value: $2.1m •Bach on Harsant Avenue, Whitianga. Rateable Value: $820,000 •Commercial property on Corinthian Drive, Albany. Rateable Value: $910,000 •2015 Mercedes Benz A180 •1963 Ford Fairlane •2011 Jeep Grand Cherokee •Hundreds of thousands of dollars in accounts in the name of the Borlase Civil Trust held with Bank of New Zealand and Kiwibank.
