Council staff cleared over Chinese Garden items

Chinese Garden.
Dunedin's Chinese Garden. Photo: ODT file

A police investigation into the possible theft of items from the Dunedin Chinese Garden found a demolition contractor acted outside the bounds of his contract by selling items which were meant to be destroyed, in exchange for beer or money for his staff social club.

The investigation by a Dunedin detective also found no Dunedin City Council employees were involved in, or knew about, the sale of items from the Chinese Garden to Shaw's Yard owner Andy McColm.

New details of the investigation have come to light this morning following the release of a police file under the Official Information Act.

The council asked police to investigate after several of the items were found on sale at the Dunedin demolition yard in December 2017, left over to be used as spares after the gardens were completed in 2008.

On filing the case in March this year, a detective said the council's main concern was whether any of their staff sold the items, or knew about the items being sold, and whether any staff were criminally liable.

"As a result of my investigation it was found that no council staff were involved,'' the detective said.

Instead, the man identified as selling the items was a contractor responsible for the removal of the asbestos roof at a council-owned building where items from the gardens were stored.

That contractor, whose name is redacted in the police file, was also asked to remove and dump items from the building deemed to be contaminated with asbestos.

The items included a large number of tiles and other items from the gardens, which were were decontaminated and set aside for storage in another area.

The detective found there was either confusion as to what was to be saved, or it was not known some of the items were from the Chinese Gardens project.

"The contractor decided that instead of dumping everything he would sell what he could salvage to make some money for their social club,'' the detective wrote.

Police believed it would be hard to prove criminal intent on the facts known, but the detective said the council may look at the matter as a breach of contract.

In an earlier letter to the council, the same detective said he believed the foreman of the demolition contractor, whose name was also redacted, acted outside the bounds of his contract by selling items that were meant to be destroyed.

But in the detective's view this fell short of the threshold for criminal offending.

"Inquiries reveal that it is common practice that demolition contractors often sell off items deemed for disposal in exchange for social funds which appears to be the case in this instance.''

The contractor admitted selling the items but said he had the consent of the council, which appeared to be incorrect.

A transcript of a police interview with the man shows he was invited to view the contents of a shed belonging to the council and take items away in exchange for beer or money for the staff social club.

He told police he sold about 20% of what he obtained, most of which was building material and not related to the Dunedin Chinese Garden.

 

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