Mary Anne Thompson. Photo / Mark Mitchell
Mary Anne Thompson will defend charges that she lied on her CV when she applied for senior public service jobs.
Thompson is facing three allegations of fraud: two charges of using a document with intent to defraud and one of dishonestly attempting to use a document with claim
of right.
The charges - which carry a maximum seven years in prison - relate to alleged offending in 1989, 1998 and 2004 - years in which Thompson applied for different positions within the public service, including the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet.
She appeared in Wellington District Court on Friday and was remanded without plea until mid-December.
Yesterday, Thompson's lawyer, Robert Lithgow, QC, said his client would defend the charges and was waiting for police disclosure of their evidence.
Her previous CVs have included a PhD from the London School of Economics, which has said it has no evidence of her gaining a doctorate there.
The State Services Commission asked the police to investigate in May, saying "serious questions" about her qualifications came to light during its investigation into Thompson's involvement in helping her relatives come to New Zealand from Kiribati.
Thompson quit her position at Immigration NZ soon after the questions were raised.
She was cleared of directly influencing the decision about her relatives' decisions, but a State Services Commission inquiry said she acted inappropriately by not raising her involvement directly with her boss.
Thompson first joined the public service in 1990 as an economist with Maori Affairs. In 1992, she moved to the Treasury and in 1998 was appointed to the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet, under Jenny Shipley.
In 2004, she was tipped to take over as chief executive at that department, but withdrew for the Immigration New Zealand position.
