Beattie had little choice but to quit

He is shown in March talking about the SFO investigation into payments for advertising billboards.

This week's resignation of Auckland Rescue Helicopter Trust chairman Malcolm Beattie came after a Government department declared him an impediment to the operation's future.

Mr Beattie, 60, has announced his retirement from the Auckland Rescue Helicopter Trust after 30 years, saying he always planned to stand down by the end of this year and it was time for "younger blood".

But documents seen by the Weekend Herald show that, having said publicly in June he had no intention of stepping down, Mr Beattie was under increasing pressure to do so.

The helicopter trust has been under a cloud since the Serious Fraud Office raided its base and the homes of staff, including Mr Beattie, in February. Mr Beattie is confident the probe will clear all individuals of any wrongdoing. He did not wish to comment further yesterday.

It is understood the SFO has now interviewed those involved and the investigation may be completed by the end of the year.

A focus of the investigation is the millions of dollars of slot machine grants from five Auckland pubs allegedly channelled back to the pubs disguised as advertising payments. The pubs are part-owned by founding helicopter trustee Wayne Porter.

The trust now wants to buy the pubs and operate the slot machines itself to secure the millions of dollars they return each year, a move considered crucial to the trust's survival.

But the Department of Internal Affairs indicated this month that it would not allow that to happen if Mr Beattie was involved.

Crown lawyer Mark Woolford said in a letter dated November 6 that Internal Affairs had "taken the preliminary view ... that Mr Beattie is not a suitable person for the purpose of a gaming machine licence or site [pub] approval. Any proposal submitted to the department should therefore take this view into account".

Despite the department's view that Mr Porter is also not suitable, the other helicopter trustees - Murray Bolton, Rea Wikaira, John McDougall and Liz Segeden - have declined two offers by him to resign.

And trust accountant Tom Romley, who Internal Affairs also considers unsuitable for gaming, remains in his position. Trust chief executive Scotty Watson said nothing had been proved against Mr Romley "so he'll be carrying on".

Mr Romley was the author of an email that showed an apparent attempt to hide the advertising payments from investigators.

The remaining trustees do not accept that there was anything improper about the most recent advertising payments, which were for helicopter billboards on the pubs. They say the payments - which Justice Rhys Harrison stopped in August - no longer came from gaming machine money.

Mr Bolton, a retired former Brierley chief executive, swore an affidavit in support of a High Court bid by Mr Porter this month to have the payments restarted.

He would say why the trustees had not distanced themselves from the pub owners, or whether they had pressured Mr Beattie to resign.

"Malcolm has made his decision to retire and we have supported that decision."

Justice Harrison has ordered the pub owners to pay back more than $400,000 for billboards that were not displayed, and has expressed concern that the trustees had not moved previously to recover the money.

Mr Bolton said: "We're taking action to recover that money and will. We don't need to be told by the judge to do that. It is in the process of being paid."

Meanwhile, Westpac, which contributes about $750,000 a year to the trust in sponsorship, says it will stick by the service, of which it is "extremely proud".

Mr Watson said the controversy had affected fundraising.

"Fortunately we've got some good supporters out there ... we're still in the air, still saving lives."