Bridgecorp director Rob Roest gets six and a half years

UPDATE: Bridgecorp finance director Rob Roest, seen as equally the most culpable in the $459 million collapse, has been jailed for six years and six months.

In Auckland High Court Justice Geoff Venning gave Roest a 10% discount from a starting point of seven and a half years but said Roest did not accept the verdicts and still regarded himself as innocent.

Earlier this morning, Roest's Paul Dacre had a hard time establishing any remorse to the judge.

Justice Venning said Roest failed at the first hurdle.

"The first step for true remorse is an acknowledgement you have done something wrong. That's the first step. He doesn't get there," said Justice Venning.

No order for reparation was made because Roest is bankrupt with no assets.

After being sentenced, Roest left the courtroom and was taken back to prison, where he has been remanded in custody since early April.

Co-accused director Peter Steigrad was sentenced to nine months home detention, to be served in New Zealand, ordered to do 200 hours community work and ordered to pay $350,000 reparation.

Although Steigrad lives in Sydney, arrangements have been made to serve the sentence in Auckland.

Justice Venning called Steigrad the "least culpable" of his convicted colleagues, and was the only one to have demonstrated genuine remorse - as evidenced by his offer to borrow money to make $350,000 reparation.

That remorse gave him a five-month discount from the judge's proposed starting point of three years three months imprisonment. Justice Venning also  made an overall reduction of one-third of the term  due to personal circumstances, related to the health of Steigrad's wife.

Steigrad's sentence starts on Monday.

Roest and Petricevic were equally culpable - Crown

The Crown sought the same eight-year jail starting point for Roest as it did for Bridgecorp managing director Rod Petricevic.

Ahead of the sentencing this morning, Crown Prosecutor Brian Dickey referred to the Bridgecorp case as the pinnacle of finance company trials by seriousness of the offending, length of trial and scale of losses to investors.

And when it came to culpability, there was little to differentiate Roest from Petricevic, Mr Dickey said.

Although Petricevic had a significant stake (40%) in the company, Roest also had a minority shareholding and was the most senior executive in the executive team.

"This is a finance company and the key person in a finance company would have to be the finance director, and we know that from the trial," said Mr Dickey.

Mr Dickey said Roest had not displayed true remorse.

"At best it appears to be regret for the position he and perhaps investors now find themselves in. But the focus appears to be on his own position."

Although Roest had some health issues, which the judge would need to consider, it was questionable whether they mitigated the sentence, Mr Dickey said.

Roest's lawyer Paul Dacre acknowledged Roest was in a different position to Steigrad, fellow director Gary Urwin and chairman Bruce Nelson Davidson (sentenced earlier).

But Roest's role as a director was different to that of Rod Petricevic, the boss.

Many Bridgecorp loans, processes and commitments were already in place when Roest became a director in July 2006 – a year before its collapse - and many of the financier's difficulties did not arise under Roest's watch.

Roest had found prison life difficult and Mr Dacre said weight needed to be placed on Roost's personal circumstances - set out in a letter to the judge. Mr Dacre would not go into the details, other than to say his imprisonment was not an easy situation for his family.

"There is no doubt there are significant issues which continue."

Crown wanted jail for Steigrad too

Brian Dickey said home detention was not an appropriate sentence for Steigrad.

Although Steigrad's personal circumstances at home in Australia, related to the health of his wife, would make it difficult to serve a jail term in New Zealand, Mr Dickey said that should not prevent a jail sentence from being handed down.

The health of Steigrad's wife needed to be considered and he asked for a sentence that was less onerous than that handed down to the other four directors

"Any form of detention is going to be a real hardship for her as well as him. Wherever he might be for such detention, he will be worrying about her day-by-day."

"The fact of conviction to a man like Mr Steigrad is a very, very real penalty in itself."

Steigrad had arranged to borrow money to pay $350,000 reparation within a fortnight.

Justice Venning said he considered Steigrad's good character and community work to be a neutral factor because there was no evidence people invested in Bridgecorp because of his good character."

"You did not have a major profile in New Zealand."

Justice Venning earlier left no room for doubt that Roest and Bridgecorp managing director Rod Petriecevic would serve time in jail when he found them guilty on all charges of misleading investors in the company's 2007 collapse.

Petricevic’s six-and-a-half-year jail sentence was one of the longest terms of imprisonment handed down to a finance company director.

He faced up to 10 years behind bars.

The 10 Securities Act charges carry a maximum penalty of five years in jail or a fine of $300,000.

The Crimes Act charges Roest and Petricevic were also convicted of carry a maximum penalty of 10 years in jail.

Roest and Petricevic, who had neighbouring offices at Bridgecorp headquarters, were cell mates while remanded in custody at Mt Eden Prison, awaiting sentencing.

Petricevic (62) learned his fate earlier than Roest and a third convicted director, Peter Steigrad (also to be sentenced today), because his lawyer Charles Cato was leaving the country to take up the position of Supreme Court Justice of Tonga.

Some of Petricevic’s sentence is expected to served in the Spring Hill jail north of Hamilton - known as "The Country Club".

Fraud trial looms

Roest and Petricevic will get some time out of jail in September to appear in the Auckland District Court to defend another set of charges brought by the Serious Fraud Office.

These relate to Petricevic’s purchase of luxury motor boat Medici and a series of payments to a Panmure spray tanner Janita Wright.

Ms Wright, romantically linked to Petricevic and facing business woes of her own, will be a witness at the trial.

Bridgecorp collapsed into receivership in June 2007 owing $459 million to 14,500 investors - an average of about $33,000 each. The likely recovery for investors is less than 10c in the dollar. 

Peter Steigrad

Director Peter Steigrad was found guilty and convicted on five charges and not guilty and discharged on five charges.

Steigrad, who lives in Sydney, was allowed bail until sentencing.

Bridgecorp director Gary Kenneth Urwin was last month jailed for two years after pleading guilty, early in the trial, to 10 Securities Act charges of misleading investors.

The company’s chairman, Bruce Nelson Davidson, pleaded guilty to the same charges last year and was sentenced to home detention and community service, and paid $500,000 in reparation.