Jury decides architect stole trade secrets

Michael Davies, the Auckland architect accused of stealing trade secrets, stood silently yesterday as he waited for the jury to deliver his fate.

Having spent the day in the cold holding cells while the jury deliberated, he was brought into court wrapped in a scarf and wearing a puffer vest.

He listened anxiously as the foreman was asked if his jury had reached a unanimous verdict on the first of nine charges of stealing trade secrets for a pecuniary advantage.

His family and even some of his former colleagues from the firm he was accused of stealing confidential files from soon entered the courtroom.

Guilty, the foreman said eight times. Everyone else was silent. On the ninth charge, which related to plans for a school toilet project, Davies was found not guilty.

He showed little emotion at the verdicts, while his lawyer Guyon Foley asked Judge Eddie Paul to not enter convictions, foreshadowing a possible application for a discharge without conviction.

“I will need to take instructions,” Foley said, glancing at Davies. Judge Paul remanded Davies at large until his sentencing later this year and thanked the jury.

Foley had earlier told the jury they had been “buried in a sea of files” during the document-heavy trial.

Crown prosecutor Sam McMullan had told them Davies lifted “thousands” of computer files from Context Architects as he left for smaller rival firm Design Partners in early 2017.

What the jury found, however, was Davies had in fact pinched Context Architects’ annual business plan, project files, and pricing models, which included details of contract negotiations with Housing NZ. He also took the firm’s ArchiCAD computer drawing template and the project file for a high-density residential development in Albany. All of this material, the jury decided, were trade secrets.