High-profile cases go back to court as legal costs sought

Failed prosecutions by at least two Government agencies, the Serious Fraud Office and the police, will be at the centre of more court hearings which could cost taxpayers hundreds of thousands of dollars.

The SFO and the police failed in both high-profile cases to get a conviction and in both cases the acquitted men want their legal costs met. No dates have been set for hearings.

Four men accused by the Serious Fraud Office of fraudulently taking millions of dollars from the Westpac Rescue Helicopter Trust walked free after a jury took three hours to acquit them in the High Court in Auckland last October. The SFO investigation took several years and the trial lasted five weeks.

Far North man Noel Rogers, accused of murder by police, also walked free last year after a jury found him not guilty of murdering Katherine Sheffield in the Far North in 1994.

Ms Sheffield's boyfriend, Lawrence Lloyd, had already served seven years of an 11-year sentence after he was found guilty of her manslaughter. Mr Lloyd's conviction was overturned when Mr Rogers allegedly confessed.

The four men involved in the Westpac Helicopter Trust case have all lodged applications for the Crown to pay their legal costs although a hearing date had yet to be set, said a lawyer acting for one of the men.

One of the four applications has been lodged on instructions of the Legal Services Agency which gave one of the men, Tom Romley, legal aid. Mr Romley was also expected to seek compensation for some legal fees he paid himself.

Lawyer Katherine Anderson confirmed two of the men, Peter Pharo and Wayne Porter, had also lodged applications and that their combined legal costs would be "well in excess of $326,000".

The $326,000 she quoted was the figure released by then Attorney General David Parker as the SFO cost of hiring two outside lawyers for the trial.

The fourth man charged in relation to the Westpac Helicopter Trust, Malcolm Beattie, is also understood to have filed an application to recover his costs.

The public defender who appeared for Mr Rogers, Michael Corry, would not confirm he had been instructed by the Legal Services Agency to lodge an application to recover the legal aid costs of Rogers' trial.

He said he was the public defender and the Public Defence Service had acted for Rogers. A hearing would be "some time" away, he said.

The Public Defence Service is a Government-funded agency of lawyers who appear for defendants unable to pay their own legal costs.

People who apply for legal aid were offered the choice of a lawyer from the private sector or one from the Public Defence Service. The Public Defence Service operates in central Auckland and Manukau.

- NZPA