Bribes cost manager 10-month sentence

A marketing manager responsible for overseeing a major national firm's customer loyalty rewards programme has been sentenced to 10 months' imprisonment for accepting $263,000 in bribes.

But in the High Court at Auckland yesterday, Justice Simon France deferred the sentence for two months to allow Glen John Keeley to apply for home detention.

Keeley, 30, of Mt Eden, pleaded guilty to a representative count of accepting gifts contrary to the Secret Commissions Act.

The company he worked for engaged a major advertising company to run the rewards programme. Both firms have name suppression.

According to the Serious Fraud Office, a senior employee of the ad agency contracted the running of the rewards programme to various companies controlled by himself and his family, without the ad firm's knowledge.

From 1999 to 2003 that employee, who is facing charges, made 45 payments to Keeley totalling $263,467.

The payments were made without the knowledge of either of the pair's employers.

The SFO maintained that the payments were made to ensure that the other man's companies retained the running and administration of the loyalty programme.

Prosecutor Christine Gordon told the judge that this was a case of "serious corruption" involving a breach of trust over a lengthy period.

Defence counsel Roger Chambers said the kickbacks pricked Keeley's conscience and he was remorseful for what he had done.

He said there had been no false invoicing by the ad agency man, nor had his invoices been fraudulently inflated.

The company got a well-run points system and customers were satisfied.

Keeley received 3 per cent of the ad man's companies' invoices to Keeley's employer.

Justice France said the concept of "graft" was not a feature of New Zealand society. It was an invidious practice that had to be denounced.

Keeley is to give evidence against the ad agency man.