Pubdate: Fri, 8 Jan 2010 Source: Dominion Post, The (New Zealand) Copyright: 2010 The Dominion Post Contact: http://www.dompost.co.nz Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/2550 Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/topic/informants HUSH DEALS NET $446,000 FOR INFORMANTS Police paid informants a record amount of nearly half a million dollars in the past year. But it is impossible to know whether taxpayers are receiving value for money in the payouts as police cannot reveal how many arrests or convictions resulted from the payouts or which crimes the payouts were for. Informants received $1.7m in the past five years. The payout of $446,845 in the last year was the most in the last 10 years. Witnesses also receive non-cash incentives such as early parole or benefits for their families. The practice has long attracted controversy. The Government demanded a review of the payouts in 2001 after police paid $30,000 to killer Travis Burns for accusing his friend Christopher Lewis of the murder of Auckland woman Tania Furlan in 1996. Lewis continued to claim Burns had framed him and killed himself in jail before the trial. Burns went on to commit a nearly identical crime, murdering another Auckland mother Joanne McCarthy. Then Justice Minister Phil Goff said at the time the process of payment of witnesses should not be ruled out but should be more transparent. "The very payment of an individual suggests that there may be an ulterior motive in what they are saying, rather than simply the desire to tell the truth." Police would not say how many informers have been paid, the highest paid to any informant, what cases information was paid for, or what other gifts or incentives were offered, saying release of the information would harm the maintenance of the law and would endanger the safety of informants. But police informers policy states that some informants are on weekly retainers and they claim entertainment and mileage expenses in "extraordinary" cases - but they have to provide a receipt or suitable explanation for the spending. Police district commanders authorise payments of up to $2000 to informers and regional commanders up to $8000. The deputy commissioner must sign off any reward above $8000. Informants also receive non-financial benefits such as legal help, mediation with other government agencies or letters to the court. Defence lawyer Greg King said tipoffs provided to police that pointed them in the right direction were in everybody's best interests. But he worried about jailhouse confessions where criminals accused others of crime in exchange for money, letters of recommendation to the Parole Board, and shorter sentences. "That situation is extremely risky in my view," he said. "Fundamentally, when you've got someone that's in prison in the first place who is coming forward purporting to have information, and the fact that it will often have benefit to them ... you don't need much imagination to see an unscrupulous person can manipulate that whole scenario to their advantage." He said the courts were rarely told that many were serial informants, and were often providing information at another trial at the same time. "These people come along, they're con men, they're professional con artists. They will take what they can get at any expense." He said the police did not do this on purpose. "But when you're paying for that evidence, there's a risk that you will be taken advantage of. "It needs to be done a whole lot more openly than it is." High-Profile Deals In 1994, police paid $13,000 and offered immunity to prosecution to David Hogan for information leading to the conviction of his uncle, Rex Haig, for the murder of fisherman Mark Roderique. Haig's conviction was overturned by the Court of Appeal in 2006, which said in a ruling there was "an evidential basis for the proposition that Hogan murdered the deceased". In 1999, a secret witness in the Scott Watson trial, who told the court Watson had admitted killing Ben Smart and Olivia Hope, admitted receiving a cellphone and car from police. The man, known as Witness B, was a gang member and a prison inmate at the time of meeting Watson. A second secret witness later recanted similar evidence, saying he was put under pressure by police and had lied. In 2001, the government ordered a review after it was revealed that police paid rapist Travis Burns $30,000 for alleging his friend Christopher Lewis had killed Auckland mother Tania Furlan. Lewis committed suicide in prison before the trial, claiming he had been set up by Burns. Burns went on to murder another Auckland mother, Joanne McCarthy, in a similar crime - both young mothers were bludgeoned to death in their homes while their children played nearby. - --- MAP posted-by: Richard Lake