Supreme court denies convicted robber's appeal

A robber has had an application to appeal his conviction in the Supreme Court dismissed.

Fa'afete Taito, who is currently in prison on a separate charge, was jailed for seven years in 1995 for the aggravated robbery of security guards at Auckland's St Luke's shopping centre.

Taito twice unsuccessfully appealed against his conviction and seven-year jail term to the Court of Appeal, most recently in March.

The Privy Council in London granted him the right to be heard again after his first appeal in 1996 was dismissed without a hearing when he was refused legal aid.

In their decision released today, Supreme Court Chief Justice Dame Sian Elias and Justice Andrew Tipping said it was not necessary in the interests of justice to grant Taito leave to appeal to New Zealand's new highest court.

Taito's appeal raised questions concerning a delay in hearing the appeal, missing trial documents, empanelling of the jury and incompetence of counsel.

However, the court found submissions did not raise any question of counsel incompetence or any issue over jury selection which justified an appeal.

A miscarriage of justice did not occur because there was no record of the summing-up of the trial and no complaint about the missing documents had been made on the first appeal when the trial was relatively recent.

The justices also found there was no basis for the claim of delay being "ventilated" again in the Supreme Court.

Taito is now back in prison serving an eight-year term on drug charges.

- NZPA