Corrupt prison guard who took bribe to smuggle tobacco gets name suppression for own safety

The man is one of six people charged following an investigation into corruption at Rimutaka Prison. Photo / Greg Bowker
A corrupt prison guard who accepted a bribe to sneak contraband behind bars has been given name suppression for his own safety – but details of the danger he faces remain shrouded in secrecy.
The 38-year-old, who previously worked as a Corrections officer at Rimutaka Prison, appeared in the Wellington District Court today for sentencing on a representative charge of corruptly accepting a bribe.
Judge Stephen Harrop said the man agreed to smuggle tobacco to prisoners in 2019, and arranged for bribe money to be paid into an associate’s bank account and transferred on to him.
According to the summary of facts, $4500 was put into the bank account, and $4220 was transferred to the Corrections officer.
He then helped introduce contraband into the prison, including tobacco.
“A public official who corruptly accepts a bribe and benefits personally and then acts on the bribe self-evidently commits a very serious offence,” Judge Harrop said.
“This offending has the risk of undermining the penal system … It also tarnishes New Zealand’s reputation as a place generally free from public corruption.”
He said five years have passed since the man committed the offending, and he had turned his life around since then. He is now working as an alcohol and drug counsellor and is heavily involved in the community.
Judge Harrop said the man was assessed as being “very unlikely” to reoffend, and that his offending was out of character. He has only one previous conviction from 2006 for fighting in a public place.
He adopted a starting point for sentencing of two years and eight months in prison, then allowed a 25% discount for the man’s guilty plea and another 15% discount for his remorse, rehabilitation, and good work in the community.
This brought the sentence down to 19 months’ prison, which Judge Harrop then translated to eight months’ home detention and a fine of $4220.
He also granted permanent name suppression, which was opposed by the Crown.
While the court heard arguments about the reasons for the suppression order, Judge Harrop has suppressed these arguments beyond reporting the order has been made under a section of the Criminal Procedure Act 2011, which allows name suppression if publishing a person’s name would endanger the safety of any person.
The Herald opposed this order, arguing it was important for the public to be made aware of the reasons a person receives name suppression.
However, Judge Harrop said he did not believe there was a “strong public interest” in those details being made public.
“I was satisfied that publication would be likely to endanger the defendant,” he said. “I think any details beyond that ought not to be published and I rule accordingly.”
The man is one of a handful of people charged following a police investigation into corruption at Rimutaka Prison.
The charges against six people followed a three-year police investigation into corruption at Rimutaka Prison, dubbed Operation Portia. Police spoke to more than 200 people as part of the investigation.
Another Corrections officer was accused of accepting five bribes, one as little as $150, to bring contraband on prison grounds.
A number of the alleged offences are supposed to have occurred during the first Covid-19 lockdown in 2020.
Another guard, Neil Falelima Potter, was sentenced in the Hutt Valley District Court in August, having pleaded guilty to three charges of corruption of an enforcement officer.
Potter accepted $3700 to bring tobacco and food into prison. He was sentenced to nine months of home detention.
Meanwhile, in 2022, a former guard was sentenced for unknowingly bringing cannabis into the prison while trying to smuggle in food for an inmate’s birthday.
Okotai Ruaporo had brought in a bag containing sweet and sour pork, grated cheese, and six bottles of tomato sauce, given to him by the inmate’s family after the inmate befriended him.
While entering the prison he put the bag through the X-ray machine, and the food items and cannabis were discovered.
Ruaporo received a suspended sentence for the offending.
Melissa Nightingale is a Wellington-based reporter who covers crime, justice and news in the capital. She joined the Herald in 2016 and has worked as a journalist for 10 years.