Third appeal turned down
A SECURITY officer who planted a fake bomb at Dunedin Airport has had his third appeal against his conviction turned down.
Preetam Prakash Maid (34) was jailed for three years following the incident, which occurred just days after the Christchurch mosque shootings in March 2019.
That sentence was cut to 17 months by the Court of Appeal but it refused to overturn his conviction, citing ‘‘strong circumstantial evidence’’ of his guilt.
In April, Maid was declined leave to appeal to the Supreme Court, which was seemingly the end of the line.
But the former aviation security worker immediately went back to the Court of Appeal with a ‘‘request for leave to appeal by person convicted’’.
Justice Denis Clifford said, since Maid had already had one appeal knocked back by the court, it would be treated as an application for recall of the judgement, something that only occurred in ‘‘exceptional’’ circumstances.
It meant the defendant — who represented himself — must show a substantial injustice had probably occurred.
‘‘Mr Maid’s proposed grounds largely seek to relitigate his unsuccessful appeal; an appeal in which he was represented by very experienced senior counsel,’’ said Justice Clifford.
The application was declined.
Maid, the court heard at trial, had complained about perceived security inadequacies in some areas of the airport.
He took items, including a gas canister, a decommissioned cellphone and red and black wiring, from a storeroom and stashed them in a laptop bag knowing it would resemble a bomb.
While undertaking his security duties, he placed the bag beside a hut at the north end of the runway before calling it in.
The Defence Force were called in to neutralise the suspicious item.
A note was found with the bag and a forensic document examiner told the jury she was confident the defendant was the author.
It is understood Maid was released from prison towards the end of last year.