Auckland Council candidate Glenn Archibald faces backlash over tax evasion conviction

A candidate seeking election as an Auckland City councillor has a conviction for evading more than $1 million in tax.

Glenn Archibald is standing for a seat on the Auckland Council in the Manurewa-Papakura ward, and on Wednesday copied in more than 170 people on an email chain with a printing firm for 10,000 campaign cards.

Several of the recipient have now asked to be removed from his mailing list.

In 2019, Archibald was convicted on 11 charges, having evaded $1.04m in income tax and fraudulently claimed $85,664 in GST refunds. He was sentenced to 12 months’ home detention and 200 hours of community service.

Glenn Archibald evaded $1.04 million in income tax over a near decade-long span.

At the time, Inland Revenue spokeswoman Karen Whitiskie said Archibald was an experienced accountant who deliberately evaded paying tax for nine years.

Before sentencing, Archibald paid $650,000 towards reparation.

Among the recipients of this week’s email asking to be removed from the mailing list was one woman who was “not impressed” and raised his conviction in a response to Archibald. One lawyer asked for her and an associate’s email address to be removed, “effective immediately”.

Several companies and organisations also asked to be removed from the mailing list, including Election Services, which is contracted to run Auckland’s local body elections.

“Please remove our email address from this chain. It is not appropriate for our company to be included in this dialogue,” Election Services said.

Archibald is standing as an independent candidate under the slogan “Making Auckland Greater Always” and pledging support for Mayor Wayne Brown. He served five terms on the former Papakura District Council from 1992 to 2007, including one term as Deputy Mayor.

Glenn Archibald spent time in Mt Eden prison.

The 78-year-old was upfront about his conviction in an interview with the Herald yesterday, saying he spent four months in Mt Eden Corrections Facility over an incident when he reported to his case manager at the Corrections office in Papakura, and the police were called.

He said the conviction was history, alleging another person was the culprit at his accountancy practice, and he was the victim.

Now 78 and suffering from a rare form of blood cancer, Archibald said he was running a campaign where voters could ask him questions and he would have the answers.

When asked how he rated his chances at the polls, Archibald said it was important to remove whoever was “stirring the pot” and focus on how his campaign unfolded.

People with a criminal conviction are eligible to stand for local body elections as long as they are not currently serving a jail term of three years or more. Local body politicians must stand down from office if they are convicted of an offence punishable by two years or more in prison.

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