Canadian fraudster John Davy will have a policeman on either side of him as he boards a flight out of New Zealand today, hours after being released from prison in Auckland.
Davy, 51, is being escorted back to Canada by two New Zealand policemen after serving 13 weeks of his original
eight-month prison sentence for fraud.
The eight-month sentence was reduced to six months, 10 days after he was jailed in Auckland District Court on May 29.
The fraud charge was laid several weeks after Davy convinced the Maori Television Service he had international management qualifications and experience which did not exist and he was appointed as chief executive.
He was sacked six weeks after his appointment in March this year.
Davy was unlikely to be handcuffed when he boarded an Air New Zealand flight to Los Angeles later today, said one of the two policemen who will escort him to Canada.
"But if he needs to be handcuffed, he will be handcuffed, but dollar for dollar, no, he won't need to be handcuffed," said the policeman, who did not want to be named.
He said two policemen were escorting Davy today because of international security requirements and there was nothing sinister about it.
"It is because airlines have certain criteria about who has to be accompanied and if flights are over a certain length of time, there has to be two, not one (escorts)," the policeman said.
Davy's lawyer, Kahu Barron-Afeaki, said today Davy was very happy to be leaving New Zealand.
"He said he was going to take his time, get his feet back on the ground and try to start up anew.
"He is happy to be getting out but the truth is he won't be properly free until he is in Canada."
He said Davy had mentioned he might do a legitimate master of business administration degree, one of the qualifications he falsely claimed to have when he applied for the MTS job.
- NZPA
