{"id":636783,"date":"2026-10-20T23:38:13","date_gmt":"2026-10-20T23:38:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/636783\/"},"modified":"2026-10-20T23:38:13","modified_gmt":"2026-10-20T23:38:13","slug":"two-accused-in-major-prison-corruption-case-can-now-be-named","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/636783\/","title":{"rendered":"Two accused in major prison corruption case can now be named"},"content":{"rendered":"

Two people charged as part of a major investigation into alleged corruption at North Island prisons<\/a> can now be identified after their name suppression lapsed.<\/p>\n

Stevee Ormsby and Matthew Sale are among 24 people charged following a nearly year-long police investigation, which uncovered allegations of staff smuggling drugs,<\/a> mobile phones and other contraband into prisons in exchange for cash.<\/p>\n

Ormsby, 34, a farmer from the Rotorua area, is charged with corruptly offering a bribe to a prison official with the intention of influencing them to introduce an unauthorised item into prison.<\/p>\n

She faces a maximum penalty of seven years in prison if convicted.<\/p>\n

Sale, 35, from Auckland, is charged with using a mobile phone while in prison without authorisation. Court documents allege he used the device while in the legal custody of Corrections.<\/p>\n

He faces a maximum penalty of three months in prison, a $5000 fine, or both if convicted.<\/p>\n

Other defendants charged in the investigation included Corrections officers, reintegration officers, prisoners and members of the public. They cannot be named at this stage.<\/p>\n

Twenty-one of those charged previously appeared in the Auckland District Court, where they pleaded not guilty. At the time, three others had yet to enter pleas.<\/p>\n

A trial has been scheduled to begin in February 2028. <\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

A police van at Mt Eden Corrections Facility. (Source: 1News)<\/p>\n

Dubbed Operation Jasper, the police investigation began<\/a> in July 2025 following allegations of criminal activity at Mt Eden Corrections Facility.<\/p>\n

Detective Inspector Colin Parmenter has said several prison guards were suspected of smuggling mobile phones, drugs, tobacco and other contraband to inmates inside the facility. <\/p>\n

“Police believe the phones were used by prisoners to continue drug importation and distribution from within the Mt Eden facility,” Parmenter previously said. <\/p>\n

The investigation was later expanded to Auckland South Corrections Facility in Wiri, where police alleged several Serco-employed reintegration officers were involved in similar offending. <\/p>\n

Police executed 25 search warrants across Auckland, Waikato and the Bay of Plenty, including a search of a cell at Spring Hill Corrections Facility near Meremere. <\/p>\n

In May, 20 people were charged, including nine Corrections officers from Mt Eden, one from Spring Hill, five reintegration officers from Auckland South and five members of the public. <\/p>\n

In August, police announced a further 33 corruption-related charges<\/a> against people already charged as part of the operation, bringing the total number of charges faced by the group to 141. <\/p>\n

\"Kohuora<\/p>\n

Kohuora Auckland South Corrections Facility. (Source: 1News)<\/p>\n

Police said the additional charges required the Attorney-General’s consent to prosecute. <\/p>\n

At the time of the initial arrests, Corrections said it had assisted police with inquiries throughout the investigation and would not tolerate criminal behaviour within its prisons. <\/p>\n

Chief executive Rachel Leota said the overwhelming majority of Corrections staff acted with integrity and professionalism.<\/p>\n

“Criminal activity in our prisons will not be tolerated and any prisoners or staff taking part in this sort of activity will be found out and held to account.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Two people charged as part of a major investigation into alleged corruption at North Island prisons can now…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":636784,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[51,67,111,43,139,69],"class_list":["post-636783","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-auckland","tag-crime-and-justice","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nz"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/636783","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=636783"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/636783\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/636784"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=636783"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=636783"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=636783"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}