Braithwaite jurors not to be 'creeped out' by 'finance lingo' – lawyer

UPDATE: Jurors in the Auckland High Court trial of National Finance director Carol Braithwaite have been told not to be scared or "creeped out" by "finance lingo".

Crown lawyer Stephen Symon told the jury there would be a lot of financial lingo to absorb as the Crown set out to prove that Ms Braithwaite had made untrue statements in a National Finance prospectus document, seeking money from the public.

"Words such as 'prospectus', 'subordinated debt' and 'auditors' may make you feel a little bit 'creeped out'," Mr Symon said.

"But it's not that scary and not that hard. Your common sense will help you along."

In order to successfuly prosecute Ms Braithwaite, the Crown needed to prove she misled investors by signing a prospectus with at least one unture statement in it, he said.

However, he told the jury there was not just one untrue statement, but 10.

Ms Braithwaite signed up to be a director, and was paid as a director, so she had the obligations of a director to ensure the prospectus was correct, he said.

"If she had done her job she signed up to do, she would have seen a lot of these things were untrue," said Mr Symon.

Justice Pamela Andrews told jurors although they they may have read about other trials involving finance company directors, or invested their own money in a finance company, they were to approach Ms Braithwaite's trial on the evidence presented at this trial alone.

"You are to approach your task as jurors objectively, dispassionate and without prejudice," the judge said.

The Crown will call eight witnesses in the two-week trial.

Ms Braithwaite will give evidence in her defence. 

This morning: In the first finance director prosecution to go before a jury, National Finance director Carol Braithwaite denies misleading investers who lost about $25.5 million when the financier collapsed in May 2006. 

Ms Braithwaite – the former wife of jailed National Finance boss Allan Ludlow – says she is not guilty of making untrue statements in National Finance's prospectus.

Her Auckland High Court trial, set down for two weeks before Justice Pamela Andrews and a jury, is longer than was expected for a judge-alone trial. 

The charge, brought by the Financial Markets Authority, carries a maximum penalty on conviction of five years' imprisonment or a fine of up to $300,000.

In a move opposed by the Crown, Ms Braithwaite's lawyer Quentin Duff last week successfully argued for her to be tried by a jury instead of a judge-alone, as has been the case in other finance director trials. 

Ms Braithwaite is the last of four National Finance directors to face prosecution for their part in the finance company's failure.

Director Anthony Banbrook, who was to be tried alongside Ms Braithwaite, entered a last-minute guilty plea to the charge in June.

He will be sentenced in August.

The financier's accountant John Gray pleaded guilty to theft by a person in a special relationship and one charge of false accounting in November 2010 and was sentenced to a term of 18 months' imprisonment, later reduced after an appeal to nine months' home detention.

Ludlow, the firm's managing director and sole shareholder, was sentenced to six years and four months in jail last October after being found guilty of false accounting and theft by a person in a special relationship.

Ms Braithwaite and Mr Ludlow separated in 2008.