Five Star finance man loses bid to reverse guilty plea

Neill Williams, former director of the Five Star Group. Photo / Steven McNicholl

The man said to be a prime mover in the collapsed finance company Five Star Group has again failed to reverse an earlier guilty plea.

Neill Williams, 77, originally pleaded guilty in October 2010 to Securities Act charges for allegedly misleading Five Star investors.

But in the Auckland District Court earlier this month Williams' lawyer, Andrew Speed, argued his client only did so because he was too ill to endure a trial and believed a guilty plea could result in home detention instead of prison.

According to defence witness Dr Richard Coleman the accused had a long history of health issues including heart disease, bowel cancer and melanoma.

Coleman, who recommended in 2010 Williams was unfit to go through court proceedings, said he was concerned at the time a trial could have ended with "a dead Mr Williams".

The bid is the second the accused has made - his first application was declined by Judge Roderick Joyce QC in March last year.

Speed argued earlier this month that there was fresh evidence to support Williams' case since the initial bid.

But Crown lawyer Ian Brookie said there was "nothing truly new about the application" and claimed it relied on the same line of defence Williams had used all along.

In a decision release this morning, Judge David Harvey dismissed the application and said "in essence there is nothing new that advances Mr Williams' contention that was so soundly rejected by Judge Joyce".

In entering the original guilty plea, Williams seemed "to have given little thought to the fact that a conviction would carry with it a mark against his name, possible financial consequences, the opprobrium of the community and the stain upon his character," Judge Harvey said this morning.

"His focus seems to have been upon remaining out of jail," he said.

Harvey said it appeared Williams only wanted to change his position when fellow Five Star Finance staffers were imprisoned and said his illness did not affect the accused's decision making abilities.

Williams was not listed as a Five Star director, but was employed by the group. The Financial Markets Authority claims he was a "prime mover" and at times a "controller of events".

Five Star marketed itself as an entity that made small loans to consumers for household purchases such as fridges but instead was allegedly investing large sums in complex commercial and related party lending.

In 2007, Five Star Consumer Finance collapsed with losses of $42 million. Other companies within the group, Five Star Finance and Five Star Debenture Nominee, owe a further $43 million.

Only a tiny fraction of these funds have been recovered.

Five Star directors Marcus Macdonald, Nicholas Kirk and Anthony Bowden all pleaded guilty to misleading investors in a case brought by the Securities Commission (which became the FMA).

Macdonald and Kirk - who also pleaded guilty to separate criminal charges brought by the Serious Fraud Office - were sentenced to two years in jail in late 2010 but have since been released on parole.

"The reality of the matter, it seems to me, is not that Mr Williams is not guilty but that Mr Williams does not want to face the consequences of a sentence of imprisonment," Judge Harvey said today.

Bowden was sentenced to nine months' home detention on FMA charges but denied the SFO's allegations.

Williams has also pleaded not guilty to these charges and the pair's trial is due to start in the High Court at Auckland this June.

Williams is now set to go through a five day disputed fact hearing before sentencing for the FMA charges, but a date for this has not been set.

He will appear in the Auckland District Court next month, where the Crown and his defence will discuss bail issues.