AN Australian man was sentenced to 12 months in jail for breaching a court order placed on him and his company in Papua New Guinea.
He was issued a series of orders which he did not take into consideration and continued extracting gold minerals from the rich alluvial gold mining areas of Wau and Bulolo in the Morobe Province.
Defendant Julian King, who is an employee of Island Arch Gold Limited, was told yesterday by Lae District Court magistrate, Nasaling Bingtau, that if an appeal court document is being lodged, it is under all jurisdictions that all works must stop to allow the court to decide and make a decision.
Magistrate Bingtau said there were other restraining court orders given to King, but he did not take them into consideration and did not abide by them.
King was believed to be engaged in unlawful activities within the area he was mining alluvial gold in, especially in regards to share distribution of revenues with landowner Frank Kangas and another Australian, Malcolm Richard Gringer, under a joint venture agreement deal to extract gold minerals.
King was supposed to pay a 40 per cent of the shares to landowner Mr Kangas and 20 per cent to Mr Gringer for using his extracting machinery such as the tromill plant and other equipmet.
However King did not comply with the joint venture agreements, which led to the two parties taking him to court.
“You will now face 12 months imprisonment and also be deported to your country after you have served your prison term for what you have done in breaching what the courts of this country exercise towards maintaining justice,” said Mr Bingtau.
A relieved Mr Gringer, who has spent over K200,000 towards getting a lawyer and on other expenses, said that this should now be a lesson to all other foreigners who are doing business within Papua New Guinea.
“This has shown that justice has prevailed, because such people are engaging in such means to do business in which corruption is being highly practiced,” said Mr Gringer.
Mr Bingtau, after handing down the decision was informed that King was also apprehended by the courthouse security guards for having in his possession a pistol with 15 live ammunitions.
The pistol was fully loaded and was taken off him as he was going into the courthouse to attend to his court case.
The pistol was later brought to the Lae police station and locked up.
Lae Metropolitan Superintendent Fred Kaiwa said that King’s pistol was a licensed firearm and that he should have notified the security guards or even have left it with them at the station before entering the court house.
Mr Kaiwa said the police have locked up the firearm.
The Post Courier