Hawke's Bay businessman accused of underpaying 16-year-old girl for sex

A Hawke's Bay businessman is on trial in Napier.

A businessman who agreed to pay a 16-year-old girl for sex had underpaid her, a jury has been told.

The Hawke's Bay businessman, who has interim name suppression, appeared in the Napier District Court before a seven man/five woman jury and Judge Michael Crosbie charged under the (Prostitution Reform Act) with obtaining sexual services from a person under 18.

The alleged offending dates back to August/September in 2006 in Napier, and involved a girl then aged 16.

The man's lawyer Chris Tennet said the man told police "I did not have sex with the woman, I didn't pay her and she was never at my house," after they questioned him in 2018.

Crown prosecutor Richard Jenson said it was unlawful for a person to obtain sexual services from a person under 18 years under the 2003 Prostitution Reform Act.

Jenson told the jury "he (the accused) told police it never happened, this trial is likely to come down whether you accept the woman's account of the incident, whether it happened or not," he said.

"He took a 16-year-old young woman back to his home where he agreed to pay her $180 to have sex with him. While they were having sex he wished to remove the condom he was wearing, she declined but then agreed on the basis he would pay her extra."

The woman, now in her late 20s, said she knew of the man as he once visited people she was living with.

She said in 2006 they bumped into each other in Napier. The man asked her to accompany him on a business trip and said he would buy her a dress and dinner, but she declined.

"It wasn't worth my time," she said.

The woman said her circumstances later changed after someone close to her died, and she became "pretty messed up" and used drugs to "blank her emotions".

She contacted the accused and asked if he wanted to "catch up."

She and the man agreed he would pay her $180 for sex.

The woman described her interaction with the man, as outlined by the Crown, and said the man agreed to pay her extra.

Afterwards, the woman was handed money in an envelope. She counted it when she got home, and realised the man had not paid her extra money.

The trial is scheduled to end Tuesday.