The sacked officer will also receive $10,500 compensation. File photo
The sacked officer will also receive $10,500 compensation. File photo
The New Zealand Police have been ordered to pay a former officer more than $81,000 in legal fees after a court battle over his dismissal from the force.
Former senior constable Gary Burrowes was dismissed from the police after an incident involving a woman leaving a nightclub in Christchurch in2010.
Mr Burrowes denied applying a choke hold on the woman, but was dismissed in October 2011 after an investigation.
Judge Bruce Corkill in the Employment Court found the decision to sack him was not a conclusion a fair and reasonable employer could have reached, and police were ordered to pay Mr Burrowes' lost wages and superannuation entitlements.
They were also told to pay him compensation of $10,500.
An application by Mr Burrowes to be reinstated to the force was thrown out by Judge Corkill.
But in a decision released today, Judge Corkill addressed the issue of legal costs - and ordered the police to pay Mr Burrowes' costs of $81,866.64 because his legal challenge in the Employment Court was successful.
The figure is only a fraction of what Mr Burrowes told the court he had been invoiced by his lawyer - a total of $178,067 for working on the case.
Police were invoiced $257,606 for their lawyers' work.
Mr Burrowes had already paid $19,000 to the court as a stay execution on the Employment Relations Authority costs order, which will be refunded with interest to him.
