Rimutaka Prison guard smuggled tobacco and food for inmate in exchange for cash

A former prison guard has been sentenced for corruption after admitting being paid by an inmate to smuggle contraband in.

Neil Falelima Potter appeared in the Hutt Valley District Court this afternoon, after pleading guilty to three charges of corruption of an enforcement officer.

He is one of multiple people charged with corruption over dealings at Rimutaka Prison.

Potter had been working as a Corrections officer in the prison between April 2018 and December 2020.

“Sometime in October 2020 you had a discussion with an inmate, and you agreed to provide the inmate with contraband in exchange for cash payment.

“The inmate provided you with the contact details of his partner so that you could obtain payment from her,” Judge Mike Mika said at an earlier sentencing indication hearing.

The inmate sent his partner $5800, and Potter met with the inmate’s partner on three separate occasions to accept money from her.

On the first occasion, he accepted $1200 and in return provided the inmate tobacco, Zig-Zag papers and a black lighter. The second occasion he accepted another $1200 to provide an icecream container full of food.

Potter left the icecream container in the laundry and it was passed to the inmate by another person.

A similar exchange happened on the third occasion, when Potter was paid $1300.

The Crown had argued “what might begin as being bribed by prisoners to bring minor contraband, can quickly escalate to corrections officers being ‘in the pocket’ of prisoners,” Judge Mika said at the earlier hearing.

The judge said Potter’s defence lawyer Chris Nicholls had argued at the sentencing indication hearing that the offending took place “in the context of you being a Corrections officer in a Corrections service which has poor training, poor pay, the real risk of violence on the job, and dealing with inmates with mental health issues on a daily basis”.

Rimutaka Prison near Wellington. Photo / NZPA

In court today, Nicholls said Potter’s offending happened some time ago, and that he had “a lot to offer” now. He asked the judge to impose a sentence of community detention so Potter could pursue employment.

“The public interest and the purposes and principles of sentencing would support him being employed as opposed to being stuck at home on home detention,” he said.

Crown prosecutor Anna O’Carroll-Nicholson asked for home detention to be imposed, saying it was important the sentence helped denounce and deter others from similar offending, given the “high public interest”.

Judge Mika allowed a 15 per cent discount to the sentence for Potter’s previous good character, remorse, and attempts to rehabilitate himself.

While he accepted an electronically-monitored sentence was appropriate rather than prison, he did not agree to a community detention sentence.

“I can’t ignore the nature of the charges. Corruption of the criminal justice system is a very serious offence. This type of offending does strike at the heart of the function of the public service and the criminal justice system.

“In my view, a sentence of community detention ... is not appropriate given the nature of the charges,” he said.

He sentenced Potter to nine months of home detention.

Other people charged with corruption at Rimutaka Prison include a prison guard accused of accepting a bribe of sex with a member of the public, allegedly arranged by a prisoner in exchange for bringing contraband into Rimutaka Prison.

Neil Potter was sentenced in the Hutt Valley District Court. File photo / RNZ

The charges against six people, including Potter, followed a three-year police investigation into corruption at Rimutaka Prison, dubbed Operation Portia. Police spoke to more than 200 people as part of the investigation.

Another Corrections officer was accused of accepting five bribes, one as little as $150, to bring contraband on prison grounds.

A number of the alleged offences are supposed to have occurred during the first Covid-19 lockdown in 2020.

Meanwhile, in 2022, a former guard was sentenced for unknowingly bringing cannabis into the prison while trying to smuggle in food for an inmate’s birthday.

Okotai Ruaporo had brought in a bag containing sweet and sour pork, grated cheese, and six bottles of tomato sauce, given to him by the inmate’s family after the inmate befriended him.

While entering the prison he put the bag through the X-ray machine, and the food items and cannabis were discovered.

Ruaporo received a suspended sentence for the offending.

Melissa Nightingale is a Wellington-based reporter who covers crime, justice and news in the capital. She joined the Herald in 2016 and has worked as a journalist for 10 years.