Sir Ngatata Love could lose his knighthood after being found guilty of defrauding his own iwi.

The 78 year-old was found guilty of obtaining property by deception in the Wellington High Court on Thursday, after a case which ran for much of August.

The charges related to a payment made by property developer Redwood to a company controlled by Love's partner, Lorraine Skiffington. He was accused of showing favour to Redwood in his capacity as chairman of the Wellington Tenths Trust, granting the company a development lease in return for the payment.

SUPPLIED Lorraine Skiffington, Love's long time partner, was initially charged alongside the 78-year-old but was granted a permanent stay against prosecution in 2015, on account of her ill health.

Love faced alternative charges of obtaining property by deception, or of accepting a secret commission. The charge of obtaining property by deception is the more serious of the two charges.

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* Professor Sir Ngatata Love, leading academic and treaty negotiator, on trial for defrauding his iwi

* Sir Ngatata had 'sense of entitlement' to $1.5 million paid by developer: witness

* Sir Ngatata Love's lawyer says agreement had no financial impact on Tenths Trust

* Sir Ngatata Love's partner told banker 'lump sum' was coming

* Trustee had 'no knowledge' of payment to Sir Ngatata Love's partner's company

* Sir Ngatata Love says beachfront house not linked to development and belonged to his partner

* Sir Ngatata Love did not tell trustees his partner was consultant to developer

* Sir Ngatata Love claims partner was wrongly claiming to represent him to developers

* Sir Ngatata Love used partner's company to obtain $1.5m payment meant for trust, Crown claims

STUFF The house, at 12 Moana Road in Plimmerton, which the Crown says Love and Skiffington purchased knowing a payment from Redwood was coming.

Love was knighted at Buckingham Palace in 2009.

The charge opens up the possibility that Love will be sent to jail, although Justice Graham Lang requested that a pre-sentencing report consider his suitability for home detention.

Andrew Labett Professor Ngatata Love and Prime Minister John Key hongi after signing the Crown apology, an historical statement of forgiveness after Parliament passed legislation enacting a treaty settlement covering the wider Wellington region, Parliament in 2009.

"I do that with an abundance of caution and without any hint as to what the sentence might be."

A beneficiary of the Wellington Tenths Trust, Tuffy Churton, said Love should now be stripped of his knighthood.

"What that knighthood represents now, is basically that he was knighted for defrauding us, out of our settlement, as beneficiaries of the Wellington Tenths Trust," Churton said.

Craig Simcox Professor Ngatata Love poses outside the High Court during negotiations for the Port Nicholson Settlement Trust, which was destined to become the trust's property. On Thursday he was found guilty of fraud in the court.

A spokesman for Prime Minister John Key said the issue would not be considered until Love's avenues for appeal had been exhausted.

"It would not be appropriate to comment at this stage. The Prime Minister will wait until any appeal period has expired before considering any question of forfeiture of honours."

Previously Key has faced calls to strip Sir Doug Graham of his honour, however he decided not to do so. Part of the reason was that while Graham was knighted for his work in Treaty Settlements, his conviction, as director of Lombard, was for breaching his duties as a director.

Ross Giblin Sir Ralph Heberley Ngatata Love appears in the Wellington High Court at the start of the trial on fraud charges.

Love meanwhile, was knighted for services to Maori, and has now been found guilty of defrauding his iwi.

He also maintains the honorary title of emeritus professor for his former role as head of the Victoria University of Wellington business school. The university has not yet commented on whether Love should forfeit that title.

'Money should be paid back'

Neville Baker, a former trustee on the Tenths and the current chairman of the Port Nicholson Block Settlement Trust, which Love previously headed, said action should be taken.

"[The question of recovering money] is for the Wellington Tenths Trust chairman, as the money was taken from the Tenths, but quite clearly, if money was taken, it should be paid back, and I would expect that that's a decision that the Wellington Tenths has to make."

Baker said the matter had been difficult for the Port Nicholson Block Settlement Trust, especially when matters were suppressed, as companies were reluctant to deal with the organisation, while there were issues which could not be put before its members.

"When we went out to get that mandate to sell [land at] Shelly Bay, there were matter we couldn't put before people at the trust."

Morrie Love, a cousin of Sir Ngatata Love and current chairman of the Wellington Tenths said the issue of recovering money was being considered.

"We'll take legal advice on that matter. Obviously it's in consideration."

Morrie Love said the amount of time it had taken to resolve the matter - it is more than four years since The Dominion Post revealed the payments - had been difficult.

"What's disappointing is the time, the time span to get justice. That is disappointing," he said.

"I'm not pointing the finger at anybody in particular, but it is four years, actually longer in all terms, but that's a long period to wait for justice."

Morrie Love is one of four Tenths trustees to carry the Love name. He said Catherine Love had been excluded from all meetings which had covered the issue of her father.

Legal advice would be sought on whether the other members of the family should recuse themselves when the issue of recovering money came before the trust, Morrie Love said.

Loves make no comment

As he left the court, surrounded by supporters, Love did not acknowledge the media.

His daughter, Catherine, who was permitted to sit with her father in court during the trial, offered a simple "no comment".

Lawyer Colin Carruthers QC ignored the media when asked if his client planned to appeal.

Love will be sentenced on October 6.

Justice Lang ordered that Love be remanded on bail, and that a pre-sentence report be prepared considering he be considered for home detention.

Showed favour to developers

The former chief executive of Te Puni Kokiri and Victoria University of Wellington Professor was accused of showing favour to Redwood by granting it a lease to develop land 1-15 Pipitea St, in return for the developer awarding Skiffington's company a lucrative consultancy contract. The events took place in late 2006 and early 2007.

The money was allegedly used to pay down the mortgage on a beachfront home on Moana Rd in Plimmerton.

Justice Lang said that in updating his fellow trustees on progress of a major property development, Love failed to inform them of a key aspect, the payments to Skiffington. During the trial Carruthers claimed Love was unaware of the nature of the transactions around him.

But Justice Lang said in a period of November 22-28, when an impasse over the development was overcome "Dr Love was instrumental in all of the events".

Love created an environment in which the developers believed he was acting on behalf of, and in the knowledge of, the wider Tenths Trust.

When he reported progress on the development to his fellow trustees, critically, he mentioned a number of aspects related to the case, but omitted any reference to the payment to Skiffington.

Accordingly it represented a false statement to his trustees by "recording in a deficient nature" Redwood's offer.

Skiffington also faced charges alongside Love back in 2013, but has since been granted a permanent stay of prosecution on account of her ill health.

In a statement, Serious Fraud Office director Julie Read said: "There is a risk that this sort of activity can occur when property development, competition for business and significant sums of money are involved. As the decision of the Court in this matter found, the abuse of trust for personal gain is a very serious matter."

Love "probably has Alzheimer's disease"

It can now be revealed that Love is believed to have dementia, "most probably in the form of Alzheimer's".

Back in March Justice Lang presided over a lengthy hearing to determine whether he was fit to stand trial, deciding, on balance, to allow the trial to go ahead.

During the trial Carruthers called psychogeriatrician Dr Anthony Duncan as a witness, who testified that while Love could give an articulate account of historical events, his condition may make it difficult to remember recent detail.

The evidence was used by Carruthers to question whether it was possible that Love was suffering from the disease back in 2006 when the events took place, making him more susceptible to being taken advantage of.

During the trial, almost all evidence in relation to Love's health were suppressed until Justice Lang's decision was released, after he acquiesced to Love's daughters plea that most of the family were not aware of the illness.