KEY POINTS:
The head of the soon-to-be scrapped Serious Fraud Office says fraudsters will be the winners if its unique powers disappear.
David Bradshaw, who has been director of the SFO for a decade, also appears to be questioning whether the balance of New Zealand's laws might be tipping too far in favour of the rights of defendants.
"We need to ask ourselves whether some of the rules put in place centuries ago in a completely different environment are still appropriate today," Mr Bradshaw said.
"We also need to ask ourselves whether the emphasis on the individual rights of the defendant is today serving society in the way intended."
The provocative comments are made in a 5 1/2-page overview Mr Bradshaw has penned for the latest SFO annual report, the 10th and final one he will be involved with before he retires.
The SFO itself is set to be disbanded within a year after the Government's surprise announcement last month that the specialist office's work will be folded into a new police-led agency designed to tackle organised crime.
Mr Bradshaw wrote his departing overview before he knew the fate of the SFO, but despite that it contains some clear messages for the office's critics.
"There is no question but that serious and complex fraud remains an issue for law enforcement in New Zealand," Mr Bradshaw wrote.
Every year a number of cases did not meet the threshold required for the SFO to investigate, but they would "not rate as a priority for the police".
The Law Commission, which was consulted by the Government about the SFO's future and recommended it be merged into the new police unit, also gets a mention.
Mr Bradshaw refers to the special powers the SFO was granted in 1990. Anyone summoned to an interview was required to attend and had no right to silence.
He rejected Law Commission concerns of a "police state". There were no significant complaints from the public about the existence of these powers, which had been vital in many of the SFO's 300 successful prosecutions of fraudsters.
Mr Bradshaw said that in his 10 years as director, the most serious threat to the fundamental rights of New Zealanders to live their lives with a sense of independence and security actually came from the risk of becoming a victim of crime.
"Yet we continue to promote protections in our laws that are only ever going to be availed by offenders."
