Former Labour candidate charged with fraud

Not an MP, but a former candidate and current Tamaki Community Board member – David Maka.

He is charged with ripping off two people, a trust and a street cleaning fund of $92,440. The street cleaning fund had received money from the very board he sits on!

Maka has pleaded not guilty, so one can not assume he is guilty. However he has agreed to sell his home “to pay the reparations sought by the victims involved in these proceedings of approximately $84,440”.

He is a JP, which means he was nominated by a local MP as being someone of outstanding character and honesty. Not that one can hold an MP to fault for a JP gone bad, but would be interesting to know which MP nominated him.

His CV lists him as having been a “Pacific Electorate Agent for Government” so could it be our friend Taito Philip Field? He is currently Labour’s Deputy Chair of their Pacific Island Sector Council.

Oh another CV lists him as “a community advisor to the Minister of Pacific Island Affairs”. So I think Field would be a good guess for who made him a JP.

The question for City Vision/Labour has to be why they haven’t had Maka resign or at least stand down from the board which gave money (and he voted for it) to the organisation he allegedly stole from and is repaying money to. He was attending meetings at least two months after he was charged.