Ill health used to subvert case judge

Yesterday was the fourth time since April the man failed to appear at Hamilton District Court. Photo / file.

A man accused of defrauding would-be clients of more than $100,000 is using his ill health and obesity to "subvert" the court process, a judge has said.

Yesterday was the fourth time since April the man, who has interim name suppression, failed to appear in the Hamilton District Court to face the charges, prompting Judge David Ruth to issue an arrest warrant.

His lawyer, Michael Meyrick, claimed the man's ill health and obesity prevented him attending, the same reason Mr Meyrick gave last week.

"I called into his house this morning on the way through to find him unconscious under a table and an ambulance in attendance, well I could hear the thing on the way. His daughter was present and told me she'd rung an ambulance," Mr Meyrick said.

He previously described the man as having "catastrophically bad health" and yesterday said his client suffered from diabetes and other obesity complications.

"This is a man who has genuine and serious health problems. The police attitude is unnecessarily jaundiced, in fact cynical and in fact wrong. There is no attempt to delay this process."

Mr Meyrick added there was a "considerable degree of animosity" between his client and the detective in charge of the case but the man maintained his innocence.

Police prosecutor Sergeant Andrea McBeth said it appeared the man was deliberately avoiding court.

The court heard last week that police sought to oppose the man's bail because they believed he could still be offending while at large but they could not do that when the man did not show up.

The man faces one charge of using a document for pecuniary advantage, eight charges of obtaining by deception and one of being a manager or director of a company while prohibited.

Judge Ruth said he was of the view the man should have been at court.

He demanded Mr Meyrick produce a medical certificate proving the man's incapacity.

Mr Meyrick organised the certificate which Judge Ruth said "hardly qualifies as such".

"It simply tells me that [the man] received treatment at the Waikato Hospital emergency department, that he would be fit to resume work on a date uncertain and at 11.50am was awaiting tests. It was signed by a doctor."

Judge Ruth said on its own the certificate might have been accepted.

"[But] seen against the continuing background of this man failing to appear and using health reasons to, in my view, subvert the process I cannot view this as a sufficient reason not to grant the warrant applied for."

However, he stipulated if the warrant was enforced police would need to exercise a degree of "common sense" if the man was receiving medical treatment.