27 Dec 2014

Atiu mayor stripped of mayoral role

7:51 am on 27 December 2014

In the Cook Islands, Atiu mayor and business owner George Taoro James Brown has been stripped of his mayoral role after being convicted on a charge of receiving stolen goods.

Earlier this year Brown was discharged without conviction on a charge of receiving stolen cigarettes valued at more than 10 thousand US dollars (13,597 NZ$).

But this month the Court of Appeal upheld the appeal made by the Crown and prosecuted Brown.

Brown was charged with receiving the cigarettes after an investigation by the Cook Islands Police into the theft of cigarettes from the Cook Islands Trading Corporation earlier this year.

In the meantime deputy mayor Vaine Paretoa is acting the Mayor of Atiu.