Bank statements examined as Horan seeks ‘sanity in all of this’

EMBATTLED NZ First MP and former television weatherman Brendan Horan says he hopes bank statements being pored over by his lawyers will give him ‘‘sanity’’ after claims money is missing from his late mother’s accounts.

The Tauranga-based list MP has been absent from Parliament this week after NZ First leader Winston Peters told him to sort out claims raised by his halfbrother, Mana Ormsby.

Forensic accountants have been asked to investigate the estate of Olwen Horan, who died in August, amid allegations large sums were misappropriated from her bank accounts during several years. Mr Horan has welcomed the investigation, saying he wants the allegations cleared up.

Earlier this week he admitted owing his mother $350 before she died, but has since refused to comment, saying the matter was with his lawyers.

Yesterday, he confirmed his legal team had his mother’s bank statements. ‘‘I’m looking for some sanity in all of this.’’

Mr Peters said the forensic investigation would be a ‘‘lengthy exercise’’.

Although Mr Ormsby had first raised his allegations with him two months ago, Mr Peters had still not been provided with any facts.

‘‘The person who made the allegation had a duty to give me the information, but he hasn’t.

‘‘I was promised the moment probate was finished and granted by the court I’d be given the information.’’

The NZ First leader said he had spoken to Mrs Horan’s lawyer, who was also ‘‘bereft of any evidence or facts’’, despite numerous requests for details.

Mr Peters said he wanted the matter resolved as quickly as possible, but has again refused to comment on whether he had confidence in his MP. Asked whether he would force Mr Horan to quit the party, Mr Peters said he would consider every option.

Mrs Horan was 87 when she died of cancer with less than $3000 in her current account, down from $259,000 in February 2007.

The Mt Maunganui resident won about $1 million in prizes in an Australian lottery in 1999.

Mr Horan’s other brother, Peter Horan, has said he also had concerns money was missing.

Mrs Horan signed a codicil, or amendment, to her will in July stating that the executor of the estate and her nephew, John Buckthought, be authorised to recover money from Mr Horan and his sister, Marilyn Bleackley, ‘‘loaned to them by me or taken from me by misadventure’’.

A family source said this week that Mrs Horan ‘‘spent like a trooper’’, in the years before she died, on operations and a new car.