“The offending was driven by greed and by personal gain in respect of Mr Koroheke.”
Simmonds said several co-offenders in the case were able to quite fairly say they’d been roped into the matter.
But he said no such excuse could be made for Koroheke, the “architect” of the dishonest schemes.
“He instigated the offending.”
From January 2015 until November 2018, Koroheke “embarked upon a deliberate course of ongoing dishonesty and deception”, Simmonds told Judge Nicola Mathers.
“And he caused an overall loss from his offending of just under $1.5 million.”
Koroheke was set to have a judge-alone trial but in late June pleaded guilty to three fraud charges and 14 charges of accepting gifts by an agent.
The fraud charges carried maximum penalties of seven years’ imprisonment.
And of the 14 charges of corruptly accepting gifts, three carried a maximum jail term of two years’ imprisonment and 11 carried a maximum penalty of seven years’ imprisonment.
Simmonds said an appropriate sentence for the “money-go-round” scheme and related offending was eight to nine years’ jail, with a 5% discount for the guilty pleas.
The court heard Koroheke had no prior criminal history.
Defence counsel Jeremy Bioletti said some of the relevant road work related to a “one in 100 year” storm which caused damage requiring rapid repairs.
“It wasn’t simply a case of Mr Koroheke seeing to make money. Certainly that was part of it but another part of it was that the site that was chosen was more cost-effective.”
Bioletti added: “It’s not a one-dimensional picture. It never is.”
He said the deception charges and the gift charges were “the yin and yang of the same central transaction”.
Bioletti said it was not a matter of someone simply paying a gift in exchange for getting a contract.
Bioletti said Koroheke and his family were all victims of a serious crime: the murder of Chozyn Koroheke.
“We’re dealing with an unusual circumstance.”
He said two of Chozyn’s children were among those who had suffered deeply - and now their adoptive parent might go to jail.
Bioletti said he asked Jason Koroheke how close he was to the grandchildren and was told they were “like little pāua shells attached to him”.
Bioletti described the murderer, Turiarangi Tai, as “a state care survivor and gang member who effectively wrecked the family”.
He said Koroheke’s guilty pleas saved the court much time.
“The guilty plea was delayed to help the children grow older,” he added.
“It was a tough decision to make.”
Koroheke was to be sentenced today but that was postponed to next week.
Judge Mathers apologised for the delay.
The court heard reparations of $100 per week had been proposed, but Simmonds said that was unrealistic given the more than $1m involved in the scheme.
The case emerged after the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) charged six people in relation to alleged corrupt behaviour in the provision of road maintenance contracts in South Auckland.
Apart from Koroheke, those charged included former Broadspectrum (New Zealand) employee Aurelian Mihai Hossu.
Hossu pleaded guilty, and so did Richard Motilal, of Engineering and Aviation.
Motilal in August 2023 was sentenced to nine months’ home detention and ordered to pay $25,000 in reparation.
Frederick Pou pleaded guilty in May to corruptly giving gifts to an agent totaling $626,000 to secure contracts.
Pou is yet to be sentenced.
John Weekes has covered crime and courts for publications including the Herald, Herald on Sunday, Dominion Post, and for News Corp, Australia.
