Revealed: Auckland mayor’s HK$255k perks during affair with Hong Kong-born mistress

The disgraced mayor of New Zealand's biggest city, embroiled in scandal over an affair with a Hong Kong-born woman, has been cleared of misusing council resources to benefit her or giving her preferential treatment.

But Auckland mayor Len Brown did fail to disclose complimentary hotel rooms and upgrades he received and had used his council mobile phone to make more than 1,373 calls and text messages to his mistress Bevan Chuang Ka-yan, an audit report for Auckland Council has revealed.

The affair was revealed in October, days after Brown was elected for a second term. Auditors Ernst & Young were called in to examine whether Brown, 57, had made inappropriate use of public money to benefit his lover, 25 years his junior.

One of the issues investigated was Brown's visit to Hong Kong and Guangzhou in November 2011. The audit found that Chuang was not the member of council staff who accompanied Brown on the visit, the Hong Kong leg of which was paid for by New Zealand's tourism body.

But the married father of three was found to have accepted 60 complimentary hotel rooms and upgrades worth NZ$40,000 (HK$255,300) during his two-year affair.

Brown also used his council mobile phone to make 1,373 calls and texts to Chuang between November 19, 2010 and October 21 this year. He reimbursed only NZ$263, on October 25 last year, for personal use.

But the auditors found that some or all of the calls may have been made in Chuang's capacity as a member of Auckland's Ethnic Peoples Advisory Panel.