Justice should prevail in Urewera 18 jury decision

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COMMENT

Moves by the National Party government to limit jury trials appear to be moving ahead against increasing opposition.

Commentators are warning legal changes made in 2007 threaten the credibility of New Zealand justice.

"... unless the Supreme Court puts its collective foot down and sends this political and controversial case to trial by jury, it runs the risk that a dangerous precedent will be set which will further erode public confidence in the judicial system."

This comment New Zealand Herald columnist Fran O'Sullivan, marks increasing criticism from mainstream media who previously lavished praise on the John Key party.

Fran O'Sullivan: Justice should prevail in Urewera 18 jury decision

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Fraud barometer hits record $100m as big cases reach court

UPDATE | WHITE COLLAR CRIME

Corporate fraud AKA white collar crime continues to sky rocket in New Zealand, but most attention stays focused on much smaller amounts of benefit fraud.

"KPMG New Zealand head of forensics Stephen Bell yesterday said the large jump in frauds in the second half of last year was mainly because of a number of large cases involving multi-million dollar frauds, including cases prosecuted by the Serious Fraud Office."

Meanwhile, politicians continue to ignore the problem with the SFO continuing to fall behind in its case load.

Most political and mainstream commentary focuses instead on a relatively small amount of benefit fraud - at $16m last year, less than 10% of corporate corruption.

MORE

Firms hit by rise in fraud

Managers most likely to commit fraud: report

Fraud barometer hits record $100m as big cases reach court

Benefit cheats get away with $16m

2010: White-collar crime cases explode

KPMG - Fraud Barometer

Police staff set to help fraud office tackle backlog - Business - NZ Herald News

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NEWS

An increase from $5 million to $7.4m for the SFO, Serious Fraud Office, is still not enough to handle corruption in New Zealand.

SFO is now asking for a revival of secondment schemes from police.

New Zealand Herald reports the background:

"The SFO faced abolition between September 2007 and October 2008 until the election of the National-led Government. The Labour Government it took over from had wanted to merge the SFO with the new police Organised and Financial Crime Agency, which National opposed at the time."

Police staff set to help fraud office tackle backlog - Business - NZ Herald News:

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