Huata said cheque was for stomach stapling, court told

Former Act MP Donna Awatere Huata and her husband Wi Huata arriving at court this week. Picture / Martin Sykes

A founder member of the Pipi Foundation was told by Donna Awatere Huata that a $30,000 cheque was for school fees and a stomach stapling operation, a court heard today.

Katherine Skipworth told the fraud trial of Awatere Huata and her husband Wi Huata that she was "very disheartened" to learn that Pipi funds were to be used for the former Act MP's stomach stapling operation.

Ms Skipworth told Auckland District Court today: "She told me it was for quite a large amount and was to do with school fees which needed to be paid and her stomach stapling."

She had been told by Awatere Huata to take the Pipi cheque for more than $30,000 to the bank in Hastings to be cashed in December 2000, she said.

She was giving evidence on day three of the trial against the Huatas who are accused of spending more than $82,000 of Pipi funds on personal expenses. They deny the charges.

Skipworth, founder chairwoman of the trust, was convicted in 2002 of stealing 40 pre-signed Pipi cheques worth $21,690 and was sentenced to community service.

She later blew the whistle on Awatere Huata and her husband with allegations they wrongly used Pipi funds for their personal use.

A SFO investigation as a result of Skipworth's allegations followed and the couple was charged.

She said today that when she took the cheque to the National Bank in Hastings to be cashed she was asked at the bank why she wanted such a large amount of money.

"I said it was trustee fees. I didn't know what else to say," she said.

She received the money in $100 bills in a canvas bank bag which she later handed to Awatere Huata.

"I was told her husband, another person and myself were the only people who knew and I was never to say anything to anybody else."

She earlier told the trial that on Awatere Huata's instructions she and the other trust signatory would sign cheques, "until their hands got sore".

Sometimes they would sign whole cheque books on Awatere Huata's instructions.

She knew it was wrong, but "did it anyway".

Skipworth also said Awatere Huata controlled the cheque book and the Pipi Foundation trustees had no say over what accounts were paid.

"As far as I was concerned the trustees were just names on a piece of paper, including mine," she said.

Awatere Huata and her husband face a total of seven charges, four of fraud and one of attempting to pervert the course of justice laid jointly against both of them and two of fraud laid against Awatere Huata.

The Pipi Foundation was set up in March, 1999 as a charitable trust to promote reading and education in Maori children.

Over three years it received up to $800,000 of Government money.

- NZPA