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A suspect in the Army Museum raid was on bail when the medals were stolen, having struck a deal with police over the return of a Goldie painting taken in a similar crime.
The man, a convicted criminal who can only be named as W because of a
court order, used the return of the Goldie and other artefacts stolen from the University of Auckland as a bargaining chip with police before a hearing in the Auckland District Court about unrelated charges in October last year.
Court documents seen by the Weekend Herald show police provided a letter to the court supporting W.
He was out on bail but facing a custodial sentence if found guilty of fraud-related charges. Three of the charges were then dropped and he was allowed to remain on bail while awaiting sentencing on the remaining charge he admitted.
The medals were stolen six weeks later on December 2.
W was due back in court on December 5 for sentencing on the fraud charge where a custodial sentence was likely. The sentencing was delayed, but W was taken into custody and has been imprisoned at Mt Eden since.
W, who has 84 fraud convictions and 55 for receiving and burglary, is a suspect in the medals theft, according to legal and criminal sources.
He spent December and January in Mt Eden Prison, where he associated with leading gang figure Daniel William Crichton, who got a bail-for-medals deal from police after negotiating with the thieves.
And W's Goldie deal involved Chris Comeskey, the lawyer involved in brokering the return of the medals.
The officer leading the hunt for the medal thieves, Detective Senior Sergeant Chris Bensemann, would not comment last night when asked if W was a suspect. Mr Bensemann would say only that he was "aware" of W's involvement in the Goldie theft.
An Auckland police spokeswoman said W was never held in custody for the alleged fraud offences and received no financial reward from police for returning the university artefacts.
"The only leniency shown was that two or three minor charges were dropped in return for him pleading guilty to the more serious charge."
Mr Comeskey confirmed his involvement with W's Goldie deal, but would only say: "I'm fed up with being the country's lost-and-found officer."
The Goldie painting, a collection of Colin McCahon paintings and a rare Oxford Lectern Bible were taken from the university library over the 2006-07 Christmas break.
Court documents show that negotiations between W and police began as early as July, when the least valuable artefacts were returned.
The Bible was returned just before the October hearing, when W's trial on the fraud charges was to start. The Goldie painting was returned after the hearing, where the charges were dropped.
The documents show the police deal also included an agreement that W would not be charged with any offence in relation to the burglary.
W was sentenced to two years and three months for the charge of forgery in relation to the fraud on February 1.
The return of the artefacts was taken into account by Judge Phil Gittos, although he gave W "very little credit" for it.
"It would be most unfortunate,"the judge said, "if the criminal fraternity got the idea that by going around and stealing valuable artefacts they could then use them to purchase themselves cheaper sentences on some sort of ransom process.
" additional reporting: Tony Stickley