Jail time looming for Taito Phillip Field

Taito Phillip Field Guilty

FIRST IMPRESSIONS: Taito Phillip Field appears at a media conference following police confirmation they would be charging him, May, 2007.

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Taito Phillip Field, the first New Zealand politician to be convicted of corruption, faces up to seven years in prison.

The former MP has been found guilty of 11 of 12 charges of accepting bribes in return for immigration services. He was also found guilty of 15 of 23 obstruction of justice charges.

Field, 56, who always claimed he was innocent, will be sentenced on October 6 and could be jailed for a maximum of seven years.

New Zealand's first Pacific Islands MP, Field was granted bail by Justice Rodney Hansen yesterday, then whisked out a back entrance of the High Court at Auckland.

A weeping Maxine Field, his wife, had to be helped from court by family, all of whom refused to comment.

Crown prosecutor Simon Moore said it was a crucial trial.

"Bribery and corruption strikes very much at the heart of who we are as a people," he said after the verdict.

Detective Superintendent Malcolm Burgess, who led the investigation, said giving evidence was "an extraordinary harrowing experience" for some witnesses. "I am grateful these witnesses had the courage to stand up and be counted," he said.

Field's lawyer, Paul Davison, said it had been a long and difficult trial.

"I'm disappointed, but Mr Field is very disappointed," he said.

It was "premature" to consider an appeal.

'REFLECTS BADLY ON PARLIAMENT'

Prime Minister John Key said the case was a sad affair.

"Ultimately it reflects badly on our Parliament. (I) can't comment on the sentencing cause that hasn't taken place yet but it's certainly a sad day," Mr Key told reporters in Cairns where he is to attend the Pacific Island Forum.

He said it would be "unjustified" for this case to be taken as a reflection of the whole Parliament, he said.

"I think it's an isolated case. I think Mr Field's been dealt with now by the judiciary and ultimately has to face whatever sentence they decide is appropriate. I think New Zealanders should see it on that basis."

He said it showed investigations into Mr Field ordered by the former Labour government were not looking for a solution.

"What it shows you is when you are facing a very serious issue you actually have to have a proper investigation and I don't think the terms of reference were ever set in a way where the government of the day was look for a conclusive outcome. Actually they wanted to park the situation for political convenience."

Labour chief whip Darren Hughes said the party acknowledged the verdict, but had no further comment.

At the end of a 16-week trial, the Samoan-born Field stood in the dock to hear the unanimous verdicts after 3 1/2 days of deliberation.

Field was the MP for Otara and then Mangere between 1993 and 2008, winning massive majorities in elections.

He was a minister outside cabinet in his last term.

At the centre of his trial was his property business in which he got Thai overstayers to work for him in return for assistance on getting them visas.

His activities were exposed in 2005 when he used Thai overstayer Sunan Siriwan to tile his planned mansion in Samoa.

The jury accepted that the work was a bribe, as were actions by other overstayers on property in Auckland and Wellington.

- Stuff.co.nz, with NZPA