High Court bid to keep Petricevic in jail

Rod Petricevic was jailed for misleading investors. Photo / Greg Bowker

The Sensible Sentencing Trust says the early release of a fraudster sets a dangerous precedent on how white collar criminals are punished.

The trust is filing judicial review proceedings with the High Court over the Parole Board's decision to release Bridgecorp's Rod Petricevic, after serving only half of his sentence.

Petricevic was sentenced to six years, ten months in jail for misleading investors. Bridgecorp collapsed in 2007 owing investors around $400 million dollars.

Sensible Sentencing Trust Founder Garth McVicar says white collar criminals destroy people's lives.

"With this particular case we have huge problems so we haven't taken this decision lightly to basically try and get some sense of justice for his victims, but also to get them to treat these white collar criminals more seriously," he said.

Petricevic was granted release after his third appearance before a parole board last month and is due to be released on September 7.

One his first appearance before the Parole Board, the board expressed concerns that it was possible the former company director could provide advice or become involved in the management of other people's assets and put those assets at risk.

During his second appearance, the board declined release because Petricevic "maintained a degree of entitlement to act in the way he did".

It recommended the former Bridgecorp boss have a brief one-to-one programme with a psychologist so he could "see his offending its proper perspective".

But Petricevic did not qualify for a Department of Corrections psychologist because he was assessed as low risk and so funded one himself.

He had three counselling sessions with this psychologist, whose name is redacted in the parole board's decision.

This psychologist reported that the counselling had helped Petricevic "to better understand himself, his offending and the extent of his offending".

The parole board said a "chastened" Petricevic seemed to express genuine remorse when he appeared before it and had not caused any problems in custody.

"Given the apparent change in his understanding of his offending and his attitude generally, and the strength of his release plan which includes ongoing access to psychological counselling, we are satisfied that Mr Petricevic's low risk of offending can be managed in the community during the remainder of his sentence," the board said in its decision yesterday.

"Mr Petricevic says he has no intention of offering advice or being involved in any business enterprise following release. He will be retired," it said

See the full Parole Board decision here:

additional reporting NZ Herald