View photosKEY POINTS:
The contractor who cut off Folole Muliaga's power in May 2007 says he feels sorry for having done so.
But he insisted to an inquest into her death today that he was never told she needed power for medical reasons and followed normal procedures by choosing not to reconnect her.
Mrs Muliaga, who was using an oxygen machine, died in her Mangere home three hours after the contractor cut her power because of an overdue bill of $168.40.
The contractor who works for Vircom, which is hired by Mercury Energy to carry out disconnections, told the inquest at Auckland Coroner's Court he was sorry for what he had done in hindsight.
"I wouldn't do anything to harm anyone," said the contractor, who has name suppression.
"I don't want to do anything that would harm anyone, so I definitely feel sorry."
He said that he would ring Mercury Energy if someone told him there were health reasons the power should be left on, but that nobody at the Muliaga household said this to him.
He said yesterday he had not gone ahead with disconnections once before the Muliaga incident, at a place for people with intellectual disabilities, and afterwards at a place with a newborn baby.
He said on both occasions people mentioned their issues specifically and he rang Mercury Energy, who agreed he should not cut the power off.
He said he had definitely mentioned the newborn baby on the second of those occasions even though the Mercury Energy call centre record of his conversation did not contain any reference to a baby.
The contractor denied suggestions from the Muliaga family's lawyers that the main reason these two disconnections didn't go ahead were because they were properties listed as vacant which were in fact occupied.
During cross-examination from lawyers for the Muliaga family, the contractor said he did not have a financial incentive to carry out disconnections.
He said staff get paid an incentive for every scheduled visit they make between 7.30am and 5pm whether the power was disconnected or not.
The contractor said he had taken first aid courses for at least 17 years and was doing a post-graduate occupational health course, but that he didn't think the fact he saw Mrs Muliaga with tubes coming from her nose meant she was sick.
He said he did not want to ask her about it because it would breach her privacy.
Asked by coroner Gordon Matenga what he thought when he saw the tubes in Mrs Muliaga's nose, he said "I didn't think anything, I didn't know what they were for".
The contractor also reaffirmed he did not hear an alarm from Mrs Muliaga's oxygen machine and that he did not see oxygen tubes on the floor at her house.
Mrs Muliaga's son Ietitaia said earlier in the inquest that he saw the tubes on the floor and clearly heard the alarm.
When put to the contractor by Ietitaia's lawyer Moira Macnab that he was lying about not seeing the tubes or hearing the alarm, he said "why would I lie? I am not lying".
After hearing what the alarm sounded like yesterday, the contractor said he was sure he would have heard the alarm had it been going and that it was possible the alarm had been turned off.
A supervisor of the contractor, who also has name suppression, later said there had been no other complaints about the contractor.
"He has been a diligent employee, popular, friendly, obliging and hard-working," the Vircom supervisor said.
He said Vircom was told they should go through with disconnections unless someone at the property gave them good reason not to, but that this could include compassionate grounds.
"Our advice is that if there is any doubt, then do not disconnect."
The inquest is expected to last another week.
- NZPA
