Fraudster heading back to Canada next week - without his wife

11.00am

Jailed fraudster John Davy will leave New Zealand next week but will not take his new wife back to his native Canada.

Davy, jailed for conning his way into the chief executive's job at the Maori Television Service (MTS), married his partner Josephine in Auckland's Mt Eden Prison in June but Canadian authorities will not let her into the country.

Davy, 51, was jailed for eight months after he was uncovered as a fraud six weeks after he was appointed as chief executive of MTS.

His eight-month term was reduced to six months on appeal and he is due out of Auckland Prison at Paremoremo next week after serving half his sentence.

Davy's lawyer Kahu Barron-Afeaki, said today Davy's wife would probably return to her native Philippines and the couple would then work out where they would be re-united.

Mr Barron-Afeaki said Davy was being removed from the country and technically was not being deported.

He said immigration authorities would put Davy on the next available flight to Canada but his wife was not allowed to go with him.

He said there should be no problem with Davy going to the Philippines to be with his wife.

"My understanding is once you marry a national you have an automatic 12-month right to live there."

He said he told Davy the easiest course for him was to get out of New Zealand.

"Davy is not fighting a court case, he's fighting a nation."

However, Davy was being looked after and had earned respect from other inmates at the low-risk unit at Paremoremo.

"He is very likeable and is a very interesting fellow."

Mr Barron-Afeaki said he had advised Davy to be completely honest about his criminal past and make a new start.

He was believed to be thinking about doing a legitimate Master of Business Administration course -- the qualification he falsely claimed to have had when he applied for the MTS job.

"My advice to him was to wipe the slate clean. I said to him 'people will give you a hard time but eyeball them and say yes, I did something wrong and I am going to right it'," Mr Barron-Afeaki said.

He said Davy had done good work with MTS and had enough experience to get through the MBA course.

- NZPA

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