Wi Huata back in jail after appeals fail

Donna Awatere Huata

Convicted fraudsters Donna Awatere Huata and husband Wi Huata have lost an appeal against their convictions and sentences.

Wi Huata was taken into custody immediately after the decision was announced.

Awatere Huata was sentenced to two years and nine months' jail in September last year. She had been convicted on five fraud charges relating to $80,000 from the Government-funded Pipi Foundation and for attempting to pervert the course of justice.

She was paroled last month after less than nine months in jail and three months on home detention.

Wi Huata was convicted on four counts of fraud and one of attempting to pervert the course of justice.

He was sentenced to two years' imprisonment but bailed until the couple's appeals against conviction had been heard.

Wi Huata's lawyer Sanjay Patel said his client had been instructed to appear in the High Court at Auckland this morning for the release of the Appeal Court's findings. "He was then taken into custody by court staff," Mr Patel said.

He had argued before Appeal Court Justices Young, Glazebrook and Goddard that fresh evidence had emerged in a TV3 interview with former Pipi Foundation chairwoman Kathy Skipworth which aired the night the verdicts were handed down.

In the interview she said Awatere Huata told her not to let Wi Huata know how much money was in the accounts and "never to show him any of our bank statements or the book".

Mr Patel submitted this put a new spin on the Crown's case, playing down Wi Huata's involvement.

He also appealed on the grounds that the verdicts could not be supported by the evidence.

However, the judges said the evidence was "more than adequate to warrant conviction" and that they saw nothing to suggest the TV3 interview presented new evidence.

As for Wi Huata's appeal against his two-year prison sentence, the judges said the frauds involved "not insubstantial amounts of money and a gross breach of trust".

They said: "The sentence imposed by the judge strikes us as being very moderate."

Mr Patel said today he had not yet taken fresh instructions from Wi Huata and would not be likely to until they had both had time to study the court's findings in detail.

- NZPA