Pahi guilty on 40 fraud, theft charges

Press, 23 February 1980, Page 11

Pahi guilty on 40 fraud, theft charges

After deliberating for more than than six hours a jury in the Supreme Court last evening found a former national sporting raffles orIganiser guilty on 40 charges lofIof fraud and theft involving $36,000. Mr Justice Casey remanded Maiko Kaiputune Pahi. aged 56, a sickness beneficiary, on bail to February 29 for sentence. The jury found Pahi not guiltv' on three charges of fraud involving $3033. Evidence was given during the five-day trial that Pahi had siphoned off money to which he was not entitled from New Zealand Fund Raising Promotions, Ltd, a company formed by Pahi to run raffles for national sporting organisations. Relatives, friends and business associates of Pahi won an extraordinary num-

iber of the major prizes smh las overseas trips, cars and i television sets. A number of persons gave evidence of not receiving prizes they believed they had won. A team of detectives spent more than a year in.vestigaling the case, examining thousands of documents and travelling all over New Zealand to interview' persons. T w e n I y-one witnesses were called by the prosecution and Pahi and one other person gave evidence for the defence. More than 130 exhibits were entered in evidence. Mr G. K. Panckhurst appeared for the Crown, and Mr L. M. O’Reilly and Miss P. J. Devine for Pahi. The officer in charge of the case was Detective Sergeant C. T. Dalzell.