Should Sir Ngatata lose his knighthood

Stuff reports:

Sir Ngatata Love could lose his knighthood after being found guilty of defrauding his own iwi.

The 78 year-old was found guilty of obtaining property by deception in the Wellington High Court on Thursday, after a case which ran for much of August. …

A spokesman for Prime Minister John Key said the issue would not be considered until Love’s avenues for appeal had been exhausted.

“It would not be appropriate to comment at this stage. The Prime Minister will wait until any appeal period has expired before considering any question of forfeiture of honours.”

Previously Key has faced calls to strip Sir Doug Graham of his honour, however he decided not to do so. Part of the reason was that while Graham was knighted for his work in Treaty Settlements, his conviction, as director of Lombard, was for breaching his duties as a director.

Love meanwhile, was knighted for services to Maori, and has now been convicted for defrauding his iwi.

I think the knighthood should go. His case differs from Sir Douglas’ in two important ways.

• Graham did not personally profit from his offences (in fact he lost a lot of money also)
• Graham’s honour was for services in a very different area to his conviction. Love got knighted for his services to Maori, and he was in fact ripping them off

But of course this has to wait until any appeals are dealt with, if they occur.