The disgraced directors of the failed Lombard Finance were today fighting their sentences in the Supreme Court, or at least their counsel was.
Former justice ministers Sir Douglas Graham and Bill Jeffries, former chief executive Michael Reeves and Lawrence Bryant believe home detention is too severe.
The directors' original sentences were made harsher by the Court of Appeal in July on the advice of the Solicitor-General; increased to include home detention.
The crux of the defence case the court heard today was that this was too severe - that the directors hadn't deliberately misled investors by omitting key information about late loan repayments and falling cash reserve from their prospectus. They said that was through sheer ignorance to their disclosure requirements.
The Crown argued two former justice ministers should have known better and that given the scope of the fallout – 3600 unsecured investors left $111 million dollars out of pocket - the men deserve the Court of Appeal sentence as imposed.
The four did try and appeal their actual convictions but this was turned down - with the Supreme Court finding that there was no miscarriage of justice there.
The court's decision today has been reserved.
3 News
source: newshub archive
