A son's battle for his beloved mum

By PATRICK GOWER

The police made a mistake when they told Phil Van Syp they would not bring charges over the car crash that killed his mother.

They said it would be "frivolous" to prosecute the other driver and indicated that Pauline Van Syp was to blame for the head-on smash on State Highway 1 near Te Kauwhata 18 months ago.

So Mr Van Syp began his own investigation. Last week Melbourne businessman Marvin Fayman was found guilty in the Hamilton District Court of careless driving causing death.

Now police will formally apologise to Mr Van Syp, a Tauranga father-of-three, for mistakes in their investigation.

"My mum was everything to me. She brought me up as a solo mother when there was no one else around.

"I was pissed off that the police weren't putting the effort in, and believed her life was worth more than that."

Mrs Van Syp, aged 44, had picked up her brother Robin from Auckland Airport and was returning to Hamilton when she and Fayman collided. He was heading back to Auckland in a rental car after doing business in Hamilton.

Mrs Van Syp was killed, and Robin and the driver of the car behind were seriously injured.

"Four months after mum's funeral, my wife and I cut our honeymoon short because police wanted a meeting.

"My two uncles were there and we were sat down in this room by four policemen and told there was no point taking a case against this guy. They said it was a frivolous case and they could even have charges laid against them if it went ahead.

"I walked out of there angrier than I have ever been in my entire life."

The investigation was signed off by the top Waikato traffic officer, Inspector Leo Tooman, who refused to prosecute Fayman because he could not be sure of the point of impact.

Mr Van Syp would not let the matter rest. He asked for the police file and spent several sleepless nights disturbing wife Lisa as he got out of bed to pore over the hundreds of pages of evidence.

The 27-year-old took time off from his job as a machine operator at a refrigeration factory and painfully visited the scene of the accident for the first time, then began ringing people who had seen his mother's last moments on November 4, 1999.

He developed his own theories about what happened, based on everything from oil spilled on the road from the sump of Fayman's car to witness accounts missed by police.

"I really knew something was up when all of the witnesses said the same thing even though they had never met each other. They all said they saw [Fayman's] car drift slowly into the southbound lane and hit my mum. There were just so many inconsistencies.

"I went back to the police and pointed them out but they just blew me off."

The case was referred to Inspector Lex Denby, the Waikato complaints review manager, who looked at Mr Van Syp's interviews and decided it should be reopened. Charges were eventually laid against Fayman eight months after the crash.

The 53-year-old was fined $3500 and disqualified from driving in New Zealand for one year after hiring top New Zealand lawyer Paul Davidson, QC, for his defence and flying in David Axup, a crash specialist from Melbourne, as a technical witness.

He said through lawyers this week that he did not want to comment about the accident or trial.

Fayman, a member of a wealthy family which featured in the Australia's Business Review Weekly Rich List between 1989 and 1994, has investments in a number of private companies in his home country.

Mr Van Syp said Fayman's punishment was inconsequential. The disqualification was a waste of time because Fayman lived overseas and the fine was small.

"To his credit, Mr Fayman came up to me afterwards and apologised and I appreciated that. He said he only pleaded not guilty because the technical evidence said he was not in the wrong."

But Judge Russell Callander said the witnesses were more convincing than the technical evidence from crash analysts.

Mr Denby said Mr Van Syp was "quite clearly" correct to talk to the witnesses and believe that the physical evidence should be put to one side. He said Mr Van Syp's case was taken into account when a new process to investigate fatal crashes was put in place last year.

Crash scenes were now closed as quickly as possible to prevent the contamination of vital evidence, and a senor officer provided assistance to those in charge of fatal crash files.

Mr Denby said all completed files were now reviewed by CIB staff - who were more familar with the criminal liability of deaths - whether police had chosen to prosecute or not.

This in itself may have prevented Pauline Van Syp's file being closed when Mr Tooman decided not to prosecute Fayman, but Mr Van Syp has no wish to dwell on "what might have been."

He is considering laying a complaint with the Police Complaints Authority, but does not want to drag the case out.

"I didn't really have to do that much to get this case reopened. All I did was look at the evidence and interview the witnesses properly then see it through.

"I just reckoned my mum deserved better and there was no way I was giving up on her."