‘Values’ bill MP’s criminal record

The NZ First MP behind a ‘‘values’’ bill that could expel migrants was once judged unfit to run pubs because of his criminal record.

Clayton Mitchell wants new migrants to sign up to a cultural ‘‘code of conduct’’ that includes a commitment not to campaign against the legality of alcohol.

Mitchell is a former publican – but his licence to run a bar was cancelled after a series of incidents. They included a suspended prison sentence for assault – which a judge called an act of serious violence – and a dangerous driving conviction.

Two years later, Mitchell won back his certificate – supported by a reference from former police officer Brad Shipton, who was later disgraced over a rape conviction.

The second term MP initially didn’t want to be interviewed by

Stuff. In a subsequent response to emailed questions, however, he acknowledged:

❚ A conviction of assault with intent to injure in what a judge described as an ‘‘act of serious violence on your part’’.

❚ A conviction for dangerous driving.

❚ A conviction for a ‘‘lock-in’’ at one of his bars – allowing customers to drink outside of the licensed hours.

Mitchell is now one of NZ First’s rising stars. The former Tauranga City councillor made a splash at the party’s annual conference last weekend with his ‘‘Respecting New Zealand Values’’ campaign.

It has been criticised by some as xenophobic, and rejected by Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern. But Mitchell says his legislation is about ‘‘inclusion’’ and ‘‘against bigotry’’.

The bill would require that new immigrants sign up to so-called ‘‘New Zealand values’’, including respect for gender equality, legal sexual preferences, freedom of religion and a commitment not to campaign against alcohol consumption.

Yesterday he told Stuff: ‘‘I’m not a saint, nor am I running to be the next Pope but I am a New Zealander with real-life experiences who believes we should stand up and fight for our egalitarian culture and values.’’

Mitchell, 46, didn’t attend the 1998 hearing that saw his general manager’s certificate cancelled by the Liquor Licensing Authority. He was in Australia – and his absence was criticised by the authority.

He’d been running Straight Shooters bar, on Tauranga’s Wharf St. Local police – unhappy after a string of late-night incidents – asked the authority to cancel his general manager’s certificate because ‘‘the conduct of the manager is such as to show that he is not a suitable person to hold the certificate’’.

They presented evidence of his criminal record to the authority. Mitchell was convicted in Tauranga District Court of assault with intent to injure while employed as the pub’s duty manager.

Sentencing notes said the incident was ‘‘entirely out of character and totally unpredictable and unexpected but nevertheless was an act of serious violence on your part’’.

In an interview with Stuff in 2015, Mitchell claimed he was defending himself from a powerlifting gang member. He said he was left with a black eye and swollen face but the authority’s documents make no mention of this.

He was given a prison sentence of nine months, suspended for a year, and fined $2000. An order was made for half the fine to be paid to the complainant.

He had also been convicted of allowing customers into Straight Shooters after licensed hours – 4.30am on Sunday, September 15, 1996. Police officers had found 14 people at a lock-in at the bar, including Mitchell. He was fined $300.

Yesterday, Mitchell told Stuff that incident amounted to a ‘‘frustrating technical breach of the rules’’.

‘‘I had a staff party in one of my businesses and there were no patrons present. I was not selling liquor.’’

The hearing – before Judge JP Gatley in Tauranga – also heard that Mitchell was convicted of driving in a dangerous manner in March 1994, and fined $250.

He enlisted his father Allard Mitchell – a publican for some 30 years – and Brad Shipton to give evidence in support of retaining his certificate.

Allard Mitchell had taken over running the pub when his son had left for Australia.

He told the authority hearing: ‘‘I manage the premises. Clayton has the status of a silent partner and takes no part in the management of the premises.

Shipton – who was then running a private investigator and security company – was called to give evidence in support of the respondent.

In 2005, Shipton was jailed for 81⁄2 years for his part in a violent packrape of a Mt Maunganui woman in 1989. A year earlier, the Dominion

Post published Louise Nicholas’s allegations that she was raped by former police officers Shipton, Bob Schollum and Clint Rickards in the mid-1980s. The trio were acquitted of those charges in 2006.

Shipton said Mitchell ‘‘had been experiencing difficulties with regard to drunk patrons, controlling minors on the premises and general security’’.

He found Mitchell to ‘‘be fairly above board, focused on the issues and determined to deal with them’’.

‘‘I have also had further discussions with Clayton Mitchell regarding the training of his staff, especially with respect to his bar persons and training his manager. Due to my experience in the police, I believe I have the knowledge and the experience to assist the bar . . .

The authority was not swayed. ‘‘Where the holder of a general manager’s certificate has criminal convictions calling into question his suitability to hold the certificate the principal mitigating factor usually relied upon by the authority is the impression we gain of the manager when he appears before us at a public hearing,’’ they wrote in their decision.

‘‘The present respondent’s case is not assisted by his deliberate choice to leave the country on the Saturday preceding the hearing before the authority on a Tuesday.’’

‘‘Mr Mitchell’s two convictions, resulting from incidents either on licensed premises or originating on licensed premises, are sufficient to satisfy the authority, on the balance of probabilities, that the respondent is not a suitable person to hold a general manager’s certificate. We have concluded – . . . after having regard to the seriousness of the offence of assault with intent to injure – that it is desirable we should make an order [to cancel the certificate].’’

By 1998, Mitchell was back in the country and asked the Liquor Licensing Authority to give him another chance. He’d been working at the Waikanae Hotel, and Chicago Sports Cafe´ in Wellington. A public hearing in Napier heard again from Allard Mitchell, who offered another reference by Shipton.

The authority decided to reinstate his certificate in October 2000.

‘‘I am a New Zealander with real life experiences who believes we should stand up and fight for our egalitarian culture and values.’’

NZ First MP Clayton Mitchell