Bridgecorp director must return from holiday

Peter Steigrad. Photo / Brett Phibbs

Convicted Bridgecorp director Peter Steigrad has lost an appeal against his sentence of home detention and must return from his overseas holiday early.

Steigrad was on holiday in Europe for his daughter's wedding, due to happen on September 8, and did not appear in person for his appeal hearing this week.

The director was found guilty in April of making untrue statements in Bridgecorp's offer documents and in May was ordered to complete nine months of home detention, 200 hours of community work and pay $350,000 in reparations. However, the terms of his sentence, including restrictions on travel, were suspended when he filed an appeal and Steigrad has been at his home in Australia since July.

While Steigrad's lawyer, Brian Keene QC, argued this week that his client's sentence should be reduced, Justices Paul Heath, John Fogarty and Douglas White dismissed the appeal this afternoon and said the offender must be back in New Zealand by next Wednesday.

"Mr Steigrad is to report to the Community Probation Service no later than 2 pm on Wednesday 29 August 2012 to resume his sentence of home detention," the three justices said.

Steigrad, who stood trial with the now-jailed Bridgecorp directors Rod Petricevic and Rob Roest, was acquitted on four of the 10 Securities Act charges he faced and found guilty of the others.

Petricevic, Roest and Steigrad were directors of Bridgecorp when it collapsed in July 2007 owing 14,500 people around $490 million.