A High Court judge today overturned the fraud convictions of former Rowing New Zealand boss Craig Ross.
At a hearing in Rotorua, Justice Paul Heath also set aside Ross' $10,000 fines but ordered Ross to pay $15,000 towards prosecution costs.
His lawyer Paul Mabey QC said that the
appeal was based on the consequences to Ross of a conviction outweighing the level of his offending.
"He took short cuts. He regrets that but a conviction was not justified and without a conviction he can continue his career as a sports administrator," Mr Mabey said.
Ross was convicted on July 25 on nine charges of knowingly using forged documents to gain almost $370,000 worth of charitable grants for Rowing New Zealand.
Judge Thomas Ingram declined - at that hearing in Tauranga District Court - a submission by Mr Mabey to have Ross discharged without conviction
Ross, 52 at the time, was expected to lose his job as manager of Tauranga's Baypark Stadium as a result of being convicted and fined $5000 on each of two counts, which involved preparing false invoices.
He used old letterheads from boat builder Kiwi International Rowing Skiffs but actually used the money to buy Italian boats which ended up winning two of New Zealand's three rowing medals at the Beijing Olympics - including the Evers-Swindell sisters' gold medal.
Ross was convicted and discharged without financial penalty on seven further counts of using other people's signatures and creating false minutes of meetings that were never held, in order to speed up funding applications to the New Zealand Community Trust, Southern Trust, Pub Charity and The Community First Foundation between November 2004 and March 2007.
The court heard that Ross did not benefit personally from the offending. The money was used for travel, clothing, boats and oars for Rowing NZ.
Ross claimed he was under pressure to raise funds for both Rowing NZ and the 2010 World Championships once they were awarded to New Zealand.
- NZPA
