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Taito Phillip Field - Source: ONE News -
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Taito Phillip Field says he has no recollection of a Thai painter offering to help him out after he intervened to get the man a work permit.
Field faces 35 charges that allege he corruptly accepted work at his properties from Thai tradesmen in return for help on immigration issues, and that he tried to derail two investigations into these corruption allegations.
Field says he gave immigration assistance to several Thai people, but says it was never linked in any way to work done on his houses.
The court has been told Thai couple Sompong Srikaew and his wife Phisimai Phothisarn were the first people to approach Field in 2002, as they were due to be removed from New Zealand.
Field said he offered for them to stay at one of his rental properties in Auckland but he did not charge them to stay there.
They offered to make some improvements to the house.
Field said he made it clear to them they should give him the bills for any repair work so he could pay for it.
The arrangement had always been with Srikaew and Phothisarn. They got other Thai people in to help, but that was their idea, Field said.
Crown prosecutor David Johnstone asked Field about cheques he paid to them.
"Had you paid for everything you needed to?" Johnstone asked Field.
"I made it clear I was happy to pay them for the repair work," Field said.
"Did you understand you needed to pay more?" Johnstone asked.
"All I know is that they were honest people, and I would pay for the work they did, whether it was for materials or labour. I paid for whatever bills they brought me to cover the work they had done," Field said.
Johnstone asked about a letter the associate immigration minister had written to Field's office on October 23, advising it wasn't his normal practice to intervene in immigration cases but he had decided to intervene in Thai Phong Phat Chaikhunpol's case.
"I don't recall any reference to this," Field said.
Johnstone asked about Chaikhunpol's painting work on Field's Auckland rental property, saying Chaikhunpol had said that as Field had helped him with his work permit, he would help Field with his repair work.
Field said he did not recall Chaikhunpol saying that.
"Mr Johnstone you have made a lot of links to a scenario which doesn't exist. Hundreds of people come to my office, and I cannot recall who Phong Phat Chaikhunpol was. You can't put things in my mind which didn't exist," Field replied.
Johnstone said a valuation Field had had done on his rental property in Mangere in December 2003 showed the repair work had increased its value from $150,000 to $230,000-$240.000.
Johnstone asked Field about a couple of letters from a Wellington real estate agent which he was questioned about by police.
The letter dated December 4 2003 said Field's property had been appraised for sale and it was now vacant.
"Is that the point when you decided to accommodate your Thai friends at the house?" Johnstone asked Field.
"Not at all," Field said.
He added that he could not remember whether he listed the property before or after Christmas 2003.
"There was absolutely no link between that and those people moving in," Field said.
Field was expelled from the Labour Party in 2007, continuing to represent Mangere as an independent MP.
The trial is into its 15th week.
