An Auckland drainlayer has admitted bribing a Housing New Zealand official by helping him buy a new car, boat and trailer, in return for his company being awarded drainage contracts worth nearly $2 million.
John Gerard Collins, aged 42, pleaded guilty in the Auckland District Court yesterday to three corruption chargesafter he gave a Housing NZ employee a $25,000 cheque to buy a 1993 Holden Calais, a $21,000 cheque to buy a new boat and trailer, and $11,000 cash.
The Housing NZ employee, Paul Joseph Graham, was sentenced last July.
Judge Jeremy Doogue was told yesterday that Collins used several fictional companies to disguise the fact that his business, C & R Drainage, was being favoured with work ahead of competing drainage contractors.
Serious Fraud Office prosecutor Lynn Stevens, QC, said Housing NZ policy required one quote to be submitted for drainage jobs less than $1000, two quotes for jobs between $1000 and $3000, and three quotes for anything above $3000.
Collins submitted the required number of quotes from among the four companies he was involved with - two of which were fictional - but C & R Drainage staff would carry out the work irrespective of which company won the contract.
Collins' companies - Asquick Plumbing and Drainage, MJB Drainage, Kelleher Plumbing and Drainage, and C & R Drainage - undertook $1.89 million of work for Housing NZ between July 1995 and January 1998.
The $11,000, paid in $500 amounts, was put in envelopes among Housing NZ files.
Graham would then collect the files from C & R Drainage's premises. Collins will be sentenced next month.
