Pensioner accused of trying to rig jury

A pensioner has been charged with attempting to rig a jury trial - a rare legal move.

Joseph Harold Oakes, who is semi-retired and in his 70s, was interviewed by detectives about an immigration fraud trial that he was a juror on, in August.

After considering 17 charges against an Asian man, the jury Oakes was serving on was left hung.

TVNZ last night reported that Oakes allegedly attempted to ask the defendant for money in return for offering to rig the result of the trial, which will get a second hearing next year.

Last night Oakes' daughter told the Herald on Sunday she was "disgusted" her father had been charged. Sandra Rayner, 39, said: "I can't think of anyone in the world less likely to get involved in something like this.

"He would be upset if he even got a parking ticket," Rayner, owner of the Helensville Riding School, said.

"We are a very law-abiding family... Dad was the only one who wouldn't say the man was guilty. He wanted justice but the other jurors wanted to go home."

Rayner claimed some of the jurors told police that there had been illegal interference. The case against the Asian man resulted from a Serious Fraud Office investigation into an alleged million-dollar immigration scam involving Chinese couples seeking New Zealand residency.

Oakes was bailed to appear in the Waitakere District Court on Wednesday.

While jury impropriety is rare in New Zealand, Ministry of Justice papers show that one person was charged in 2004-5 with the offence of "accepting any bribe or other corrupt consideration on account of his or her conduct as a member of a jury".