Two escape Citifleet prosecution - Otago Daily Times
A police report suggests Brent Bachop's death and a right to silence may have helped two others escape prosecution following the Dunedin City Council's $1. 5 million Citifleet fraud. He was found to have sold 152 council vehicles, while pocketing proceeds, and police concluded in June there was insufficient evidence to charge anyone else in relation to the fraud. However, the death of Mr Bachop - who was not named directly in the police report - and the right to silence meant both had a defence that could not be overcome, it said. That conclusion came despite the actions of one of the parties - a salesman at an unnamed Dunedin car dealership - being considered ''highly suspicious'', the police report said. The salesman had sold one car, a Mazda 3, to Mr Bachop in June 2008, only to accept it back again just four months later, when Mr Bachop used it as a trade-in towards a private vehicle purchase. His lawyer later told police the salesman could remember selling the Mazda 3 to Mr Bachop, but not the trade-in four months later, which the police file concluded was ''highly suspicious''. Source: www.odt.co.nz
