Convictions In Bribery Case

Press, Volume CX, Issue 32214, 5 February 1970, Page 24

Convictions In Bribery Case

(New Zealand Press Association) WELLINGTON, February 4. Stuart Frederick Caldow and the company of which he is managing director, M. P. Caldow and Company, Ltd, were today found guilty by a jury in the Supreme Court, Wellington, of bribing a customs officer.

Both had pleaded not guilty to a joint charge of corruptly giving a bribe—a cheque for £5BO on April 19, 1967, to Harold John Head, then an office)' of customs, with intent to influence his actions in his official ityThe Chief Justice (Sir Richard Wild), remanded Caldow to February 13 for sen-

fence and said he would sentence the company the same day. He granted Caldow bail—ssoo in his own recognisance with a surety of ssoo—and directed that he report twice daily to the police. Summing up, his Honour said it was an important case for Caldow and his company, but it was also an important case for the community. The offence alleged was the most serious one of bribing a Government official in the revenue department of the Crown. Bribery struck at the root of public confidence in the administration of New Zealand’s governmental system; Caldow had said Head came and asked him for a loan and that reluctantly he made it then and there. “The Crown prosecutor put it to you that there is no record at all in writing of any loan to Head," his Honour said. “It is entirely for you to say. “That might be put to you the other way—that some care was taken to see that there was no written record whatever of any payment or loan of any kind to Head. You may think that important"