A former senior Auckland Transport manager accused of receiving bribes totalling more than $1 million has abandoned a bid for continued name suppression.
Murray John Noone, 52, faces six bribery charges in a case involving two other defendants who have previously been named, including another former Auckland Transport official.
The Serious Fraud Office alleges Noone accepted bribes from engineering management company Projenz (2005) Ltd over more than six years in senior roles with the former Rodney District Council and then with Auckland Transport.
He resigned as Auckland Transport's road corridor maintenance manager in October 2013, when the SFO stepped in after an internal inquiry commissioned by the council body.
Noone has pleaded not guilty to all charges, as have co-defendants Barrie Kenneth James George and Stephen James Borlase.
George, 68, faces four charges of accepting bribes in his previous roles as a road maintenance contracts manager with Auckland Transport and, before that, as infrastructure manager with the Rodney council.
Borlase, 51, has stepped down temporarily as head of Projenz while facing eight charges of bribing the other two in their capacity as public officials and four charges of doctoring hours worked by subcontractors in invoices to the Rodney council for company services.
Judge Pippa Sinclair last month in North Shore District Court turned down a bid by Noone for continued name suppression, rejecting his lawyer's submissions that he and his partner would suffer extreme hardship if he were identified.
She said there was significant public interest in the case, given that he faced six serious charges of corruptly receiving "a considerable sum" of money as a public official.
The judge said the SFO was alleging Noone accepted more than $1 million in payments, travel, accommodation and other benefits.
But Noone was still unable to be named until today, when the High Court had been due to hear an appeal lodged on his behalf against Judge Sinclair's decision.
His lawyer, Paul Wicks QC, confirmed to the Herald this afternoon that Noone had now abandoned the appeal, in favour of focussing on defending himself against the charges.
"Obviously the charges are strongly denied, and will be defended, and he wants to focus on that," Mr Wicks said.
"He's elected not to seek name suppression, so he's abandoned the appeal, but he does want me to make it clear that the charges are strongly denied and will be defended."
The three defendants have been remanded to reappear in the district court on Thursday.