Peter Scutts gets home detention

Former wine boss and advertising executive Peter John Scutts has been sentenced to eight months home detention for taking kickbacks.

Justice Mary Peters delivered her sentencing in the High Court at Auckland this morning.

Scutts, a former CEO of the NZ Wine Company (NZWC), was found guilty and convicted of 17 Serious Fraud Office charges in the High Court in May.

The charges included one for receiving a secret reward under the Secret Commissions Act, while 16 others related to the dishonest use of a document under the Crimes Act.

The SFO said Scutts, while working for NZWC, received payments from Australian wholesaler Liquor Marketing Group (LMG) based on the volume of wine sold.

The Crown had alleged he received $1 per case of wine sold when NZWC supplied about 60,000 cases of wine to LMG.

Each crime carried a maximum sentence of seven years imprisonment, and Crown lawyers recommended two and a half years in prison. Corrections had submitted Scutts was at risk of reoffending and recommended home detention.

Justice Peters ruled out community service early on as not sufficiently strong enough, and noted “home detention is not a light option as Mr Scutts and his family will find out.”

The judge first considered an 18 month prison sentence, but made reductions for previous good character, as he has no previous convictions and good character references.

She imposed a sentence to deter him and others from carrying out offences of the same nature.

“It will be difficult for you to find work which requires trust again,” she told Scutts as he stood in the dock.

 “This sort of offending doesn’t happen very often and that might be it doesn’t occur very often or might be because it's hard to detect.”

In her written judgment in May, Justice Peters said she was satisfied Scutts lied in his interview with the SFO when he denied handwriting on particular invoices was his. He told the SFO his son Oliver had prepared particular invoices, not him. 

The judge also said the evidence of Liquor Marketing Group's Douglas Finlay was implausible. 

Scutts is well known in the advertising industry for his time managing Young & Rubicam (Y&R), and in the rugby world as former chief executive of the Blues Super Rugby franchise.

He was the chief executive of the New Zealand Wine Company from July 2011, until the company merged with Foley Family Wines [NZAX: FFW] in September 2012. Foley Family Wines made a complaint to the SFO in 2013.

SFO director Julie Read has issued a statement on the case, saying: “Protecting New Zealand’s reputation as a safe place to invest and do business is why the SFO targets both public and private sector corruption even at modest levels.  Businesses are also entitled to expect that their employees will act in the best interest of their employers. Cases such as this one reinforce that message.”