website<\/a>.<\/p>\nMayer was found guilty of misconduct in May, and a timetable was set for the parties to file submissions. <\/p>\n
At that point, the authority noted that misconduct needed to be \u201cin the course of the business to which the licence relates\u201d.<\/p>\n
Mayer\u2019s misconduct was not in the course of his private investigations business, and cancellation of his licence was not an available penalty, the authority found.<\/p>\n
However, Private Security Personnel Licensing Authority chairwoman Trish McConnell, in the decision, said amendments to the Private Security Personnel and Private Investigators Act had removed the requirement for misconduct to be in the course of the business to which the licence or certificate relates for it to be a discretionary ground for cancelling a licence or certificate.<\/p>\n
McConnell said his actions were part of ongoing investigative activity using his skills and position as a private investigator to investigate the complainants\u2019 personal and financial activities.<\/p>\n
The amendment wasn\u2019t retrospective, so cancellation of his licence wasn\u2019t an available penalty, according to the decision.<\/p>\n
Mayer\u2019s lawyer submitted he had already suffered substantial professional and personal consequences, saying the misconduct arose in a personal context, with no commercial benefit.<\/p>\n
The complaints, investigation and prosecution unit recommended a three-month suspension order and a fine at the higher end, submitting Mayer\u2019s conduct was deliberate, involved false and potentially defamatory assertions and \u201cnot an isolated lapse but part of wider investigative activity\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u2018No remorse\u2019<\/p>\n
The complainants submitted Mayer had taken no accountability for his actions, shown no remorse and not acknowledged the seriousness of his behaviour.<\/p>\n
They considered there was a risk he would act similarly in the future, according to the decision.<\/p>\n
McConnell said nothing in the written and oral submissions Mayer made throughout the investigation or to the authority suggested he accepted any wrongdoing or accountability for his actions, or demonstrated remorse.<\/p>\n
\u201cEven in his written apology he justified his actions by saying \u2018I was led by my heart and not my brain\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThis, together with Mr Mayer\u2019s apology for any pain the complainants have suffered, falls short of accepting responsibility for his actions or showing genuine remorse for what he has done.\u201d<\/p>\n
McConnell accepted Mayer has suffered emotional, professional, financial and personal costs as a result of his misconduct and the proceedings.<\/p>\n
His New Zealand Institute of Private Investigators membership had been cancelled, and he had lost Motor Vehicle Registrar and Waka Kotahi NZ Transport Agency access arrangements.<\/p>\n
Some character referees expressed the view that his conduct was one-off, occurred in a fraught emotional context, and was not representative of his professional character, according to the decision.<\/p>\n
\u2018It wasn\u2019t one-off\u2019<\/p>\n
McConnell disagreed, saying it wasn\u2019t a one-off act of making a defamatory social media post using a false persona but included Mayer\u2019s ongoing actions of using his position and skills as a private investigator to investigate the complainants\u2019 personal and financial activities.<\/p>\n
Mayer was fined $500, ordered to complete an advanced primary course, complete tertiary-level legal or business ethics papers, and formally reprimanded.<\/p>\n
McConnell warned Mayer that it was his final chance and if he didn\u2019t complete training as ordered, his licence could be suspended.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn addition, if Mr Mayer does not learn from the ordered training and is found guilty of misconduct again, his licence is likely to be suspended, or if his misconduct is serious, cancelled.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mayer told NZME: \u201cI take my professional obligations seriously and will continue to focus on the standard of work I provide to clients.\u201d<\/p>\n
Al Williams is an Open Justice reporter for the New Zealand Herald, based in Christchurch. He has worked in daily and community titles in New Zealand and overseas for the past 16 years. Most recently, he was editor of the Hauraki-Coromandel Post, based in Whangamat\u0101. He was previously deputy editor of the Cook Islands News.<\/p>\n
Join the NZ Herald\u2019s Open Justice team for Case by Case<\/a>, a video and podcast series examining the disputes and decisions making headlines across New Zealand. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cMy conduct was found to have occurred outside the course of my business, which is why cancellation of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":605237,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[74,26676,1558,126531,17290,16843,5904,2740,19724,60505,5812,282662,11518,111,139,6933,69,1642,1523,142774,1136,104646,213,3755,19054,3382,1455,102],"class_list":["post-605236","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-after","tag-allegations","tag-been","tag-defamatory","tag-detective","tag-false","tag-final","tag-former","tag-given","tag-investigator","tag-make","tag-mayer","tag-misconduct","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nick","tag-nz","tag-online","tag-over","tag-persona","tag-private","tag-slapped","tag-sports","tag-third","tag-turned","tag-using","tag-warning","tag-with"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/605236","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=605236"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/605236\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/605237"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=605236"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=605236"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=605236"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}