KEY POINTS:
The crown was accused of being biased and having tunnel vision in its prosecution of a Haast father and son charged with stealing greenstone from South Westland's Cascade Plateau.
The accusation came as the six-week trial of David Anthony Saxton, 60, and his son, Morgan David Saxton, 28, went into its final phases with the closing address by defence counsel Colin Withnall QC.
The pair, helicopter pilots, deny joint charges of stealing the greenstone (pounamu) which the crown says was the property of the Ngai Tahu tribe. An earlier charge has been laid against David Saxton alone, when the crown says it owned the resource itself.
Mr Withnall said the crown's analysis of the Saxton's financial records was based on documents which were not produced in court and was inadmissible.
The analysis demonstrated "the lack of objectivity, bias and tunnel vision which permeates so much of the crown case".
He also said the crown had deliberately inflated figures to cause prejudice against the Saxtons.
He told Christchurch District Court Judge Gary MacAskill that he wanted to put the claims into perspective. The charges alleged the pair had taken about 3.6 tonnes of greenstone -- about 1 cu m. The total amount taken by the Saxton family over about 14 years amounted to about 20 tonnes.
This was in contrast to 60 tonnes of stone taken from the Big Bay area by a licence holder there in just two years, in 1999 and 2000.
David Saxton had been carrying on a helicopter business involving transporting people and goods of all kinds in South Westland, at a time when there was extensive prospecting and mining of greenstone taking place.
"There is evidence that he acquired it through contra deals and payments by miners and prospectors during that period," Mr Withnall said.
"There are a number of valid legal sources of pounamu during this period and prior to it."
The crown was told on Monday by the judge to argue its case that it owned the greenstone at the centre of the trial, which was later passed to Ngai Tahu with a vesting act.
The court had heard of mining activities in the Cascade Plateau in the 13th or 14th centuries, but it appeared knowledge of the greenstone's existence in the area later disappeared.
Prosecutor Marie Grills referred to the deed of purchase in 1860. The crown obtained the Cascade Plateau from Ngai Tahu and the mineral rights passed to the crown with the transfer of the title to that land.
Mr Withnall's closing is expected to continue into Wednesday, and the judge is expected to take a month to announce his verdict on the six week trial.
- NZPA
