Reporter takes letters from Versalko file

Auckland District Court staff considered calling police to investigate after a Sunday newspaper journalist took letters from a court file.

The Sunday Star Times has said the act was an "honest mistake" but court staff will be reporting the matter to the media freedom committee within the Commonwealth Press Union.

Court staff said that a reporter, who the Weekend Herald has learned is Jonathan Marshall, took documents from the court's file on Stephen Versalko, ASB Bank's $17.8 million fraudster.

The missing documents were letters of apology Versalko wrote to ASB Bank and the Serious Fraud Office and were used as the basis for a story in the newspaper in the days after Versalko was sentenced last month.

Court staff said that an investigation, which involved an examination of the security camera footage from the counter where reporters viewed the files, suggested that a media representative had removed the papers and left the courthouse with them.

The reporter later "contacted the court to apologise and explained that they had inadvertently picked up the letters with other papers".

The letters were returned. The court considered laying a complaint with police but chose not to.

The Ministry of Justice is tightening its policies to prevent anything being removed from a court file again.

Staff are being trained and a media representative role will be created.

In response to the incident, Sunday Star Times publisher Mitchell Murphy said, "This was an honest mistake. Nothing more, nothing less."