Racing personality Mike O’Brien jailed for pokie machine fraud
Marlborough racing personality Michael (Mike) Joseph O’Brien has been jailed for four and a half years for pokie machine frauds.
The Crown said O’Brien’s offending had been selfish and greedy, deceiving the Department of Internal Affairs gambling regulator so he could earn more than $1 million a year ‘‘lobbying’’ for grants to racing clubs.
But O’Brien’s lawyer, Bruce Squire, QC, said O’Brien’s true earnings were lower and he was a legitimate lobbyist, earning an income by successfully persuading gambling trusts to make grants to racing clubs.
O’Brien, 58, was deemed unsuitable for involvement in the gambling industry but at the High Court in Wellington on yesterday, Squire said O’Brien was unable to challenge that view so resorted to the deception.
The Crown said it would withdraw charges against O’Brien’s father, Pat O’Brien, 83. Pat O’Brien’s ill health had stalled the case against him in February. He was a retired accountant and former chairman of Harness Racing New Zealand.
Imprisoning Mike O’Brien would affect his father, whom he helped daily, and his Indonesianborn wife, whose immigration status could be at risk. His two school-age children from a previous marriage also lived with him, Squire said.
O’Brien now admitted he had a gambling addiction and resolved to give away his long involvement with horse training and gambling.
He was found guilty of five charges relating to hiding his involvement in the operation of gambling machines through Blenheim-based Bluegrass Trust, and venues hosting the machines.
Justice Robert Dobson said the industry needed to be regulated and O’Brien’s offending struck at the heart of that.
Both the bars and clubs where gambling machines operate, and the organisations that own the machines and distribute the profits, have to be licensed. People cannot be ‘‘key’’ in both roles, but O’Brien hid the fact that he was.
The charges related to dates between 2009 and 2013, when Bluegrass made grants to various organisations, including racing clubs, of $11.8m.
O’Brien invoiced racing clubs for his lobbying services at the start of the season, and the Crown alleged he would then influence or control the grants process so that clubs received about three times the amount they paid him.
Paul Anthony Max, 60, a bar owner and operator of Nelson, was found guilty of three charges. He will be sentenced in late July.