Myles gets off lightly

Victoria Robinson at Stuff reports:

A panicked move to throw Serious Fraud Office investigators off the trail has seen a former National MP sentenced for perverting the course of justice.

The irony is that Gilbert Myles committed a crime trying to hide business dealings which in the end were not criminal.

Myles appeared in the Auckland District Court this afternoon to be sentenced before Judge Roderick Joyce QC.

He was given four months’ community detention and 450 hours of volunteer work for obstructing the course of justice.

Judge Joyce said Myles “panicked” when the SFO started investigating him for a complex arrangement involving sellings books and charities – he faked a receipt book to impede the investigation.

“This was an exceedingly stupid thing to do,” the judge said, calling the fake book “amateurish”.

It is often the cover up which does people in.

Myles and his family had to endure the trial and he had never offended before, and was unlikely to again.

A prison sentence was not required for personal deterrance because Myles had already learnt his lesson, the judge said.

A probation report about Myles said he “struggles to come to terms with the finding of wrongdoing” in the case.

The Field problem.  Field also got into arguably more trouble with the cover up than the original offending. And like Myles doesn’t accept covering up was wrong.

Myles was elected to Parliament in 1990 as a National MP, beating Phil Goff in Mt Roskill. He soon defected to set up the Liberal Party which became part of the Alliance. However Myles defected again to NZ First and actually spent most of 1999 in Parliament as a List MP replacing Deborah Morris who resigned.