PHOTO: Auckland real estate agent Ric Parore, 79, has won damages in a Bill of Rights case against the Inland Revenue Department for breaching his right to silence. FILE
According to STUFF a real estate agent has been awarded more than $75,000 because his right to silence was breached during an Inland Revenue tax investigation.
Richard (Ric) Parore, 79, faced civil and criminal tax cases, both resolved in his favour.
This week it was topped off with a judge awarding him damages for a breach of his rights, fixed at nearly $71,000 to cover legal costs, plus $5000 for emotional harm.
Parore said on Wednesday he hoped the whole affair was now “well and done”. The damages awarded did not cover his full legal costs.
“If you feel you are right, it pays to pursue it,” he said.
His lawyer, David Weaver, said he hoped it was the last chapter of a case that had taken four or five years in various forms and had been long and arduous.
Enough resources had been put in to it at all levels, he said.
Weaver is a specialist in tax law and said he believed it was the first time damages had been awarded against IRD for breach of fair trial rights.