Michael Swann, imprisoned for nine and a-half years for defrauding the Otago District Health Board of almost $17 million last December, has lodged a notice of appeal against the length of his non-parole period.
Dunedin lawyer Jon Beck said when contacted yesterday Swann lodged a notice of appeal at the Court of Appeal in Wellington on April 7 focusing on the length of his four-and-a-half-year non-parole period.
Mr Beck was assisting Swann, who had lodged the notice using legal aid.
Swann and friend Kerry Harford were found guilty of the $16.9 million fraud in early December and in early March were sentenced to nine and a-half years' jail, with a non-parole period of four and a-half years and four years and three months' jail respectively.
Mr Beck said Swann's non-parole period represented 50% of his jail term compared with the more usual one-third.
"It is the length of non-parole period, not the [length of] sentence, which he is appealing."
No date had been set and he expected it to be "some time" before the matter was dealt with in the courts, saying Swann was also "facing other matters", including with the health board's civil case, the Serious Fraud Office and "other proceedings" in court.
Mr Beck was not aware of Swann having filed any other notices of appeal.
Swann and Harford sent 196 invoices from a Harford-owned company to the Otago District Health Board for computer services that were never provided.
