Ahh..common sense and compassion reigns for Kurtis Haiu.

The Auckland NPC and Blues lock diagnosed with a rare cancer earlier this year has walked free without convictions from the Pukekohe District Court. Kurtis fell under the spell of 'property developer, financier' Glenn Cooper and lost between 4 to 5 hundred thousand dollars. Glenn Cooper weaseled himself into the Mangere Cook Island community through the Church with promises of good returns on property investment.

The good people naive though they might have been, brought the story, took mortgages against their properties, borrowed and raised money to buy properties in Taupo on which there were 'agreements' of some sort to cover their money, by guaranteed 'buy back' options along with profits insuring the safety of their investments. So this small part of our community inadvertently fell in beside thousands of other nzers taken in by similar schemes, not knowing that the properties they brought had inflated prices and were immediately on sold to allow Cooper's wallet to thicken.

Kurtis called on Glenn Cooper punching him a couple of times and was arrested and charged. At the previous hearing of this case Glenn Cooper made the incongruous statement that he wanted Kurtis punished but didn't want him convicted. That was in a victim's report. Yes, Cooper who now faces fraud charges, proposed to have a say in what should happen to the man he stole money from and whom retaliated.

There was a lot at stake for Kurtis, a young man with a family and already battling cancer that has at least in the meantime has curtailed his rugby career. Everything he had worked toward with his rugby career appears to have been gone although the he has vowed to recover that money (if it still exists) through the civil courts. Yesterday he was discharged without conviction, leaving the opportunity that he may yet be able to travel overseas to play rugby if he beats the biggest opponent of all - cancer.

I'm grateful to see Judge Gerard Winter's ruling on this matter because of not only what it represents to Kurtis and his family, the Cook Island Community at large, but more so  that the practicalities of modern life allow that somebody might want to punch on the nose a thief and not be punished for it. In the meantime all the best to Kurtis and his family, my best wishes most of all for his return to good health not only because he is a great rugby player but because I'm sure many others stung in such schemes with take quiet pleasure that despite the odds Kurtis bit back.