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Cliff Buddle

A corrupt executive from a Japanese company was sent back to jail yesterday when allegations of bias against the judge who convicted him were rejected by the Court of Appeal.

 Miyashita Akira, 43, accused District Court Deputy Judge Michael McMahon of 'taking off his judge's robes' and influencing the way the prosecution pursued the case.

 During the trial the prosecutor had decided 'in the interests of justice' not to use Akira's statement to the ICAC because of problems with the translation.

 Deputy Judge McMahon had said this was 'a shame', the Court of Appeal heard.

 Graham Harris, for Akira, said the 'unfortunate and unnecessary' remark prompted the prosecution to do a U-turn and bring the statement into evidence. 'It gave rise to a perception the judge was intervening against the interest of the defendant,' he said.

 Mr Harris said the judge had intervened on almost every page of the transcript of proceedings. He also accused Deputy Judge McMahon of brushing aside problems with the prosecution case.

 Mr Justice Noel Power said allegations of bias were the most serious that could be made against a judge other than those of corruption. He said there was nothing wrong with the comment made by Deputy Judge McMahon in relation to Akira's statement.

 It would be 'a public scandal' if the failure to obtain a proper translation was allowed to inhibit the use of evidence.

 Mr Justice Simon Mayo said: 'It is a very serious matter to make unsubstantiated allegations of this nature and the attack on the judge was wholly unwarranted.'  Deputy Judge McMahon also received the backing of Mr Justice Michael Stuart-Moore. He said: 'This was an outstanding example of the exercise of sensible judicial management of a difficult case.'  Akira had been found guilty of offering a bribe to one of his firm's suppliers and six charges of false accounting. The prosecution alleged he had made corrupt payments to the man and then disguised them in the company books.

 Akira, who ran the Hong Kong operations of Fuji Shoko Company, claimed the payments were legitimate to compensate the supplier for currency control losses and payments due to defective materials. He was jailed for a year in October 1996 but freed on bail pending appeal the following month.



Accusations of bias against fraud case judge 'wholly unwarranted'