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Vili Mahe Taukolo admitted to having illegally accessed a police database.
A corrupt police officer who was jailed after admitting to illegally accessing the police database to leak information to the gangs will be released from prison.
Last November, Vili Mahe Taukolo was jailed for 2 years and 2 months for accessing the police’s National Intelligence Application (NIA) and then leaking the information to gangs between February 2018 and March last year.
Taukolo will be released from jail on December 16 under special conditions that will last six months and will be subject to a three-month curfew.
In the decision of the Parole Board given to Stuff, Taukolo’s attorney, Marie Dyhrberg QC, said previous concerns about the involvement of other police officers in the crime are resolved.
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“He noted that senior police officers have confirmed that, as far as they know, there were no other police officers who acted in the same way as Mr. Taukolo,” the decision reads.
Judge Neil Maclean said that Taukolo has spent his time in prison in protective custody due to the nature of his crime and has been unable to access normal reintegration activities.
JARRED WILLIAMSON / THINGS
Vili Mahe Taukolo accessed the NIA to sell information to an organized criminal group.
However, Taukolo has been able to produce a comprehensive release and security plan.
Judge Maclean said that Taukolo is now low risk and has employment available to him.
“We remind Mr. Taukolo of the implications of the abstinence provision in terms of responsibility to be examined and / or monitored if and as required by a police officer and other authorized persons, including his probation officer.”
Taukolo will be released on December 16 and ordered not to communicate or associate, directly or indirectly, with anyone known to a gang.
You also must not possess or consume alcohol, controlled drugs, or psychoactive substances.
Until March, it is subject to a curfew between 10 p.m. and 6 a.m.
SELL INFORMATION TO GANGS
Taukolo began working for the police in 2015 as a licensed officer before becoming a sworn officer in 2016.
At the time of the offense, he was a police officer working in Auckland Central.
“You were in the company of organized criminals who kept asking for more information, what could have been a one-time help to an old friend, became an endless cycle,” Judge Cunningham said during sentencing.
Crown prosecutor David Johnstone said that Taukolo broke his police oath by illegally accessing the database for the purpose of helping organized crime groups. By selling the information, he made a personal profit of tens of thousands of dollars.
The crime lasted a full year. Taukolo entered the NIA application and turned from the first page, where the system warns of possible criminal ramifications for the misuse of information.
Ricky Wilson / Stuff
Defense attorney Marie Dyhrberg QC said concerns involving other senior officers had been resolved.
Johnstone said the corruption was for personal gain.
Taukolo searched the database more than 20,000 times over a 16-month period. A quarter of them were done on a day off, which in itself is not allowed by the police.
While Taukolo was on sick leave, he did about 1,200 searches. Some searches included finding details on 34 of his colleagues, himself, and members of his family.
The court heard that he made a profit of $ 70,000 and when police searched his home they found almost $ 30,000 in cash in his room.
In October 2018, he sought details of a high-profile police investigation involving a methamphetamine import case in Christchurch.
Irregularities in the Taukolo searches prompted the police to audit the NIA searchers, triggering the investigation.
Johnstone said the former police officer would look at the addresses before looking for interested persons.
In February, Taukolo was also stripped of his police pension after the Superior Court ordered him to lose $ 80,000 under the Criminal Assets (Recovery) Act of 2009.
