Dunedin businessman Robin Sew Hoy was sentenced to 10 months home detention and ordered to pay back $325,000, as per an agreement with the Otago District Health Board, in the High Court at Dunedin today.
Sew Hoy's admission in September that he corruptly paid more than $755,000 in inducements to get work from the board, marked a fall from grace for a respected member of the Dunedin community.
Sew Hoy pleaded guilty to one charge of making a secret payment to former board employee and convicted fraud Michael Swann as an inducement for favourable treatment in relation to services to be provided to the board.
Swann has pleaded not guilty in relation to the matter and will be tried next year.
The Crown said the payment was essentially ‘‘a kickback'', amounting to more than $100,000 a year, for increased amounts of ODHB information technology help-desk work.
Sew Hoy's company Innovative Systems Ltd had conducted business with the board before Swann was employed in 1998 to manage the board's IT functions. After 1998, the amount of work directed to the company increased significantly, the Crown said.
The summary of facts stated that for every hour charged out by Sew Hoy, he allegedly paid Swann $25. Sew Hoy charged $95 an hour, while other boards charged on average $56 per hour for similar services.
Sentencing Sew Hoy, Justice John Fogarty said the reparation agreement with ODHB took in to account, among other things, that the original sum included GST, that the board still owed Sew Hoy some money for work completed and that another DHB had paid up to $85 per hour potentially lessening the amount allegedly overcharged.
