Roading rorters are released for Christmas
The duo convicted in 2016 in New Zealand’s largest bribery prosecution, involving more than a million dollars in kickbacks and tens of millions of dollars in roading contracts, have been released from prison.
According to decisions from the Parole Board, Stephen Borlase and Murray Noone were both granted early release after serving a third of their sentences.
Borlase, the former managing director of engineering firm Projenz, was found guilty of paying bribes to his co-accused and sentenced to five and a half years in prison. Noone, a senior manager with Auckland transport at the time of the offending, was given a fiveyear sentence.
A seven-week trial heard of lavish entertainment spending by Projenz on Auckland Transport staff and a longrunning financial relationship between the pair that saw more than $100,000 paid annually to Noone and disguised as “consulting” fees.
The Parole Board heard Noone now accepted “the amounts he received were disproportionate to the work he did with Projenz” and “acknowledges how his roles in both the private sector and public sector conflicted”.
Noone was said to have used his time in prison “constructively”.
The Parole Board said Borlase had been a “compliant prisoner” who was employed in the prison kitchen.
Last year police secured freezing orders as part of criminal recovery proceedings against Borlase’s home, bach, commercial property, a number of luxury and classic automobiles, and hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash
Legal restrictions against Borlase — his dishonesty convictions prevent him from directing a company, and his professional status as an engineer has been stripped — would assist in ensuring “he does not place himself in a position where he can engage in serious corruption and bribery ever again in the future”.