UPDATE: John Banks will not rule out Auckland mayoralty bid

Former MP John Banks is “not ruling anything in or anything out” following his acquittal, including standing for the Auckland mayoralty, despite saying he is not sure any political party would want him.

He will take legal advice about any further action or costs bid but says there is no compensation for what he has been through.

The Court of Appeal earlier today acquitted Mr Banks and ruled he should not be re-tried for allegedly filing a false electoral return.

In April, the President of the Court of Appeal, Justice Ellen France, ordered a hearing on whether Mr Banks should be re-tried. She had earlier ruled that he should be re-tried, following the appeal court’s quashing of his conviction for knowingly filing a false electoral return after disclosing donations from internet entrepreneur Kim Dotcom as anonymous.

Today a Court of Appeal judgment from Justices France, Forrest Miller and John Wild has cancelled the retrial order and acquitted Mr Banks.

In a press conference this afternoon Mr Banks says he has been to hell and back over the past three years.

“Truth has prevailed at a huge cost to my family, and with so much stress and so much oppression to myself.

“You’ve got no idea how lonely this has been,” he said, crying.

Mr Banks says he will take legal advice about any recourse but says money is not the issue, despite the process costing him enough to financially destroy a lesser person.

He will not rule out standing for Auckland Mayor, but says a return to parliament seems unlikely.

Mr Banks called the Crown’s withholding of evidence, as found by the Court of Appeal, to be a “serious error of judgment.”

“Some of the mistakes made by the judiciary going through were outrageous.

“The Solicitor-General has a lot to answer for.”

He says the court action “hasn’t helped” his marriage, and that he regrets not being an MP this morning.

But he rules out any court action against Mr Dotcom saying he “wouldn’t be bothered.”

The decision comes just weeks after Mr Banks’s lawyer David Jones QC filed an application for the appeal court to recall its decision to retry Mr Banks after he received fresh material from the Crown about a contentious lunch at the Dotcom mansion.

In January, Crown Law said the evidence of two American businessmen, who say they were present at Kim Dotcom’s mansion when Mr Banks and his wife were there, needed to be tested in court.

The appeal court found the evidence of new witnesses, American businessmen David Schaeffer and Jeffery Karnes, could have affected the outcome of the case.

The businessmen said donations were not discussed at that lunch at Mr Dotcom’s mansion.

“I can honestly say I haven’t been back to the mansion for lunch,” Mr Banks says.