Pair fight to keep name suppression

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A woman married to a notable professional who was convicted and fined $10,000 is heading to the High Court in a bid to keep her tough suppression orders from being lifted.

Name suppression for her and her husband was due to be lifted at 5pm today pending an appeal.

Auckland District Court records show an appeal has been lodged and will be heard on March 26.

The case had already produced one of the most complex suppression orders in the country and at one point the Auckland District Court itself sat behind locked doors, banning reporters.

When proceedings against two men and a woman began in May last year, Judge Alison Sinclair imposed blanket suppression on names, occupations, types of occupations, ages, addresses and area, charges and nature of charges.

Last month the single charge against the man was withdrawn but the one against his wife remained. She pleaded guilty and was convicted and fined $10,000 with Judge Dougherty saying her offending was at the lower end of the charge, which carried a maximum penalty of seven years jail.

Charles Cato, acting for the woman, and Andrew Speed, for the husband, asked for permanent name suppression.

Argument for and against it is suppressed.

Mr Cato, outside court, refused to say whether they would seek name suppression beyond Friday.

Last month the third man pleaded guilty.

His name, Nicholas Henry Voerman, 51, was not suppressed but the charge he pleaded to along with the statement of facts was.

Judge Dougherty told Voerman that as a result of a High Court hearing last year, he was already serving a sentence of three years jail.

He sentenced Voerman to 12 months jail on the new guilty plea, concurrent with the earlier sentence.

Voerman was escorted out of the court room, through the judges' entrance, by plain-clothed policemen.

Stuff

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