A Whangarei District Court judge has fined a store manager $300 because he wilfully refused to do jury service.
Colin Campbell, manager of two Farmers stores in Whangarei, appeared before Judge Arthur Tompkins on Wednesday.
Campbell was summonsed to court to explain why he did not attend as required on March 12.
Judge
Tompkins told the court the jury system depended for its integrity on a wide range of people being available to serve as jurors.
"People in Mr Campbell's position are exactly the kind of people who should be able to serve on a jury bringing to it as they would, not only their commonsense and intelligence, but also qualities such as experience in dealing with people, making decision, and assimilating and acting on evidence given during a trial."
Campbell sought to be excused from jury service in March saying in a letter his workload was heavy due to a March promotion and stocktake exercise.
The registrar refused his request and the matter was put before Judge Tompkins who also declined to excuse Mr Campbell.
Campbell wrote back to the court saying he would not attend for the reasons given in his initial letter.
Bailiffs sent to Farmers to serve a summons on March were told Mr Campbell was on holiday. A woman at his home address said he was away at Rawhiti until the weekend.
Mr Campbell told the court he knew it was going to be a busy week. He had also been asked to attend his son's school camp.
Although he was away from the store, he was still involved in work matters, including the announcement of the closure of Whangarei's Deka store.
He said he had offered to serve on a later date but there was no flexibility from the court.
"The inflexibility may be why there is such a reluctance of people to attend jury service," he said.
Judge Tompkins pointed out the law did not allow for such flexibility.
He fined him the maximum of $300 under Section 32 of the Juries Act 1981 for willfully refusing to serve when called upon.
"I am sure that if Mr Campbell ever had the misfortune to face a jury trial he would wish for the jury that tried him to be properly representative of the community in which he lives.
"Likewise given that he is employed by a significant corporate citizen in New Zealand, I am sure that the Farmers Trading Company would wish to be seen to be fully participating in a crucial part of our justice system."
- NORTHERN ADVOCATE
