Tears in court over GoldTimes case

One of the accused in the Rescue Helicopter case broke down as his lawyer told a High Court jury the emotion he displayed during his interview with investigators revealed a genuine man with real passion for the rescue trusts.

As Paul Davison, QC, spoke of Wayne Porter's lifetime association with surf rescues and his desire to see the trusts - Auckland Rescue Helicopter and ChildFlight - he is accused of defrauding thrive, Porter wept for a few minutes while a supporter, seated behind in the gallery, placed a hand on his back.

Mr Davison said Porter had been involved in all aspects of the rescue trusts, including jumping out of the helicopter with a rescue ring, and his passion to see it succeed could only be understood by others who had witnessed someone they had retrieved from the surf die in their arms while waiting for an ambulance.

The advertising arrangement whereby up to 55 per cent of money the trusts received from poker machines in pubs owned by Porter and co-accused Peter John Pharo went back to them as advertising payments was a win-win situation, Mr Davison said.

The Crown alleges the arrangement had no commercial basis and defrauded the trusts but the defence said it gave reliable, no-effort income during a time when there was great competition for the fundraising dollar and was regarded as having saved the helicopter rescue service.

The pubs did not thrive but needed the advertising money to survive themselves because alcohol revenue fell as they converted to casino operations.

Mr Davison attacked the Serious Fraud Office's investigation, claiming it had fallen victim to a conspiracy mindset and had done a poor job.

It had adopted the mindset of the Department of Internal Affairs (DIA) whose investigator was a "friend" of whistleblower, Julie Helson, who worked for the trusts.

After Ms Helson was told to mind her own business when she tried to question her bosses - co-accused Malcolm Beattie and Stewart Thomas Romley - about the advertising, she alerted DIA investigator Robin Barrett and provided him with documents she copied from trust files.

Mr Barrett, a former police officer, knew Ms Helson from when she was a non-sworn police worker and wrote a reference for her.

They had secret meetings and Mr Barrett agreed to keep her name out of the file.

The fact that the SFO returned the DIA file uncopied after it gained its own documents from a search warrant had the effect of covering up that Ms Helson had stolen trust documents to give the investigator and suggested the SFO was buying into the DIA's attitude, Mr Davison said.

The Crown claims a conspiracy existed from the beginning of the advertising arrangement in 1995 but Beattie had informed the board of trustees of the arrangement at the time.

The SFO had made a "huge, huge mistake" in not interviewing all the trustees of 1995 about this.

Mr Davison: "This investigation has been off the rails from the outset because it was based on non-disclosure to the trustees when there was [disclosure]. The SFO asked the wrong people and no doubt they got the wrong answers."

Defence closing addresses continue today.

The accused

* Malcolm Beattie, Wayne Porter, Peter John Pharo and Stewart Thomas Romley, all of whom had ties to the GoldTimes Foundation, which distributed grants to the ambulance trusts.

The charges

* Each man faces two charges of conspiracy to defraud.