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| ACC Chief Executive Ralph Stewart and Chairman John Judge. |
The police will not lay any charges over the Bronwyn Pullar ACC case.
Assistant Commissioner Malcolm Burgess said there would be no further investigation into the concerns raised in March following a leak of confidential information.
"After careful consideration of the evidence now available and a separate legal review of the facts we have determined that no offence has been disclosed," he said.
In March, ACC asked the police to review the circumstances around a confidential file that was mistakenly sent to Pullar last August.
The privacy breach was revealed earlier this year after Pullar, a former National Party figure, was inadvertently emailed the names and details of thousands of ACC clients.
The breach included the details of about 250 sensitive sexual abuse cases.
ACC laid a complaint over Pullar, accusing her of threatening to go public about being sent the confidential information unless the corporation promised to pay her a benefit for two years.
Pullar has claimed a recording of a meeting on 1 December 2011 between her, ACC staff and former National party president Michelle Boag shows she did not make the demands.
Clearly the complaint to the Police was not made in good faith. ACC would have known that Bronwyn Pullar had not tried to blackmail them, as the recording would have categorically proven.
It really amounts to ACC management making a false police complaint, which under the Crimes Act 1961 (PDF) is a serious offence:
112 Evidence of perjury, false oath, or false statement
No one shall be convicted of perjury, or of any offence against section 110 or section 111, on the evidence of 1 witness only, unless the evidence of that witness is corroborated in some material particular by evidence implicating the accused.
113 Fabricating evidence
Every one is liable to imprisonment for a term not exceeding 7 years who, with intent to mislead any tribunal holding any judicial proceeding to which section 108 applies, fabricates evidence by any means other than perjury.
115 Conspiring to bring false accusationEvery one who conspires to prosecute any person for any alleged offence, knowing that person to be innocent thereof, is liable—
(a) to imprisonment for a term not exceeding 14 years if that person might, on conviction of the alleged offence, be sentenced to preventive detention, or to imprisonment for a term of 3 years or more:
(b) to imprisonment for a term not exceeding 7 years if that person might, on conviction of the alleged offence, be sentenced to imprisonment for a term less than 3 years.
So the real question is what will the police do about this false statement... and if they choose not to do anything, is that a result of Judith Collins' interference?
