Wi Huata loses bid for home detention

Wi Huata is starting his jail term. Picture / Brett Phibbs

Convicted fraudster Wi Huata has begun a two-year sentence after being denied home detention.

However, 44-year-old Huata, husband of former Act MP Donna Awatere Huata, who is also behind bars after being convicted of fraud, could soon be out on bail after instructing his lawyer to appeal his conviction.

Last month the pair were found guilty of stealing tens of thousands of dollars from the Government-funded Pipi Foundation, which Awatere Huata set up in 1999 to help under-privileged Maori children in literacy and social skills.

Awatere Huata, who is 57, is serving a two-year-and-nine-month sentence at Mt Eden Prison.

In a decision reached at Manawatu Prison on Thursday, Parole Board convener Judge Patrick Toomey rejected Huata's bid for home detention because of the seriousness of his offending and his attempt to pervert the course of justice.

Judge Toomey also cited his failure to accept guilt and the effect of the offending on the victims and on other community groups seeking funding.

At the time the couple were found guilty, Judge Roderick Joyce was forced to postpone proceedings when Huata's sister Hira Huata stood up in the packed public gallery and accused the court of administering "white man's justice".

The outcome prompted claims of racism, because the pair were Maori, and that jail was harsh and a waste for those who would be better suited serving community-based sentences.

The latest decision has outraged another of Huata's sisters, Huia Huata, who said the hearing was a set-up which continued the harsh justice her brother had received.

"Wi maintains his innocence but all the judge was focused on was issues around his guilt and whether he was remorseful."

She said the panel showed little interest in the impact his imprisonment would have on his family.

The couple have five children aged 19, 17, 15, 13 and 11.

"He has a family. Those children have had their mum and now their dad taken away from them.

"This has devastated the entire whanau.

"With Donna being inside he [Wi] was hoping that one of them would be able to be there for the children."

She said the children would continue to live in the family home supported by extended family.

"Yes, the whanau will rally around, but there are things little kids share with their mother and father, not with their aunties and uncles. It is exceptionally hard on the little ones."

But the separation from their father could be brief. Huata's lawyer, Roy Wade, confirmed that an appeal would be lodged against his conviction tomorrow.

Mr Wade said he was also seeking legal aid to apply for bail for Huata pending his appeal.

Awatere Huata's lawyer, Guyon Foley, said he was yet to be instructed by his client about appealing her conviction.

Huia Huata said her brother's decision to appeal was prompted by his failure to stay out of prison.

"Until Thursday it was just a consideration - his main focus was getting home detention.

"Now he is in the slammer, of course he is looking at an appeal."

The couple were sentenced after being found guilty by a jury of six of the seven charges relating to Pipi Foundation money.

Each was convicted of four joint charges of fraud and one joint charge of attempting to pervert the course of justice.

Donna Awatere Huata was found guilty of an individual charge of fraud but not guilty of another.

The charges involved more than $80,000, some of which was used to pay for Awatere Huata's stomach-stapling operation and state-integrated school fees for the couple's children.