16 Aug 2017

Ngātata Love granted parole

4:21 pm on 16 August 2017

Disgraced Māori leader Ngātata Love has successfully sought parole and will be released from prison in October.

Sir Ngatata Love during his trial in the High Court of Wellington on 6 October 2016.

Sir Ngātata Love during his trial in the High Court of Wellington on 6 October 2016. Photo: RNZ / Aaron Smale

At a High Court trial Love was found to have sold his influence as chair of the iwi organisation, the Wellington Tenths Trust, to a group working on a property development in the capital.

The developers paid $1.5 million to a company run by his partner Lorraine Skiffington, but most of the money was used to pay down a mortgage on the couple's home.

Love was jailed for two-and-a-half years and the sentence was upheld earlier this year by the Court of Appeal.

His hearing before the Parole Board took place yesterday.

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