Bar owners accused of duping charity

Two Wellington bar owners duped a charitable organisation out of millions of dollars of gaming money, a Wellington District Court jury was told yesterday.

In 1999 the men, now aged 63 and 51 and with interim name suppression along with the name of the charitable organisation involved, owned several Wellington bars and had 230 of the organisation's poker machines on site in some of them.

The pair are charged with one count of intent to defraud by false pretences and the younger man faces 11 charges of using a document with intent to defraud.

Both pleaded not guilty to all charges.

Crown prosecutor Tiana Epati told the jury that in December 1999 the older accused man had gone to the charitable organisation and told them they had a better offer from another organisation to supply machines to their bars.

The Crown claims that because the machines in the men's bars accounted for 20 per cent of the organisation's business, the organisation had agreed to match the supposed deal.

But the Crown alleges the competing deal never existed and was made up solely as leverage by the men.

The other 11 charges are for producing false expenses forms.

Under gaming regulations, a maximum of one-third of poker machine takings can be used for expenses, with the balance going to the Government and to the community in the form of grants.

In order to maximise the amount of expenses paid, the prosecution claims, the younger man inflated the claims on their bars to the tune of $2 million by exaggerating the amount of space they took up, the amount of power they used, the cost of staff looking after them, and the cost of security.

Ms Epati said that over the course of the trial, the prosecution would produce 530 documents in evidence and question 21 witnesses.

For the defendants, Donald Stevens, QC, told the jury the case was entirely without merit and his clients should not be on trial.

"It will become very clear, ladies and gentlemen, as the evidence unfolds, that there was never any statement made by [the older man] that was false," Dr Stevens said.

"It will become very clear that none of those forms were inflated. None."

- NZPA