Chelsea Daniels: ZB reporter on Polkinghorne's finances being analysed in ongoing murder trial

A deep dive into Philip Polkinghorne's finances - and payments for sex - was carried out as his murder trial hits its halfway point.

The eye surgeon is accused of killing his wife, Pauline Hanna, in their Remuera home in 2021.

The Court today's heard about the large sums Polkinghorne paid to numerous sex workers.

Newstalk ZB's Chelsea Daniels says he was largely in control of the couple's bank accounts.

"All up, the total amount he spent on women between 2016 and the beginning of 2021 was $296,645."

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Afternoon. The trial of Philip Polkinghorn has heard today how
much money he spent on six workers. He's accused of
murdering his wife, Pauline Hannah and there Emi wad to
home in April twenty twenty one. Now Chelsea Daniels has
been covering the trial for us. She's with us now, Hey, Chelsea.

Speaker 2 (00:13):
I am where are we up to?

Speaker 1 (00:14):
What evidence was hert today?

Speaker 2 (00:15):
So three words to sum up today's evidence. That's money, money, money.
Margaret Skelton, she's a forensic accountant. She took us through
a laborious but enlightening journey through the couple's various bank accounts.
It was a lot, a lot of numbers, different transactions, payees, transfers,
credit and debit cards. But we will whittle all of

(00:36):
it down to just a few facts. Polkinghorn was largely
in control with the couple's finances, and he spent hundreds
of thousands of dollars on ladies.

Speaker 1 (00:46):
How much exactly? How many women?

Speaker 2 (00:48):
Well, we've already heard about Madison Ashton, the Sydney sex worker.
The Crown alleges he was beginning to start a life
with to her alone. He transferred just over one hundred
and six thousand dollars between February twenty nineteen and January
twenty twenty one. The list went on about thirty five
K to a woman named Lee, seventy two K to

(01:09):
a woman named Jody, sixty one K to Alaria, thirteen
K to Kimberley, over seven K to Indra. All up,
the total amount he spent on women between twenty sixteen
and the beginning of twenty twenty one was two hundred
and ninety six thousand, six hundred and forty five dollars.

Speaker 1 (01:28):
And that's just the money that was actually transferred to
these women, right.

Speaker 2 (01:31):
Yeah, So in amongst all of these transactions, there was
about one hundred and twenty cash withdrawals from Australian ATMs
totaling around one hundred and fifteen thousand dollars.

Speaker 3 (01:42):
So most as a result of my investigation, appeared to
be made when Miss Pokinghorn was not in Australia. I
was aware at that point that Possession lived in Australia
at the time and in to eighty twenty nineteen, from
this Anzet account, mister Polkinghorn started making international transfers to

(02:06):
medicines and those cash with drawls ceased and those payments
that the payments that were made were referenced in the
one hundred and six thousand that I mentioned earlier.

Speaker 2 (02:20):
So through immigration records we can tell Polkinghorn wasn't always
in Aussie when these withdrawals were made. There was also
a list of cash with drawals made in New Zealand
about two hundred odd thousand dollars. From twenty nineteen to
March twenty twenty one, there was just over one hundred
and ninety eight thousand dollars transferred to Polkinghorn's Australian account

(02:43):
and Skelton doesn't know where that money went once it
hit Australia because banks there don't need to comply with
court orders like the ones here.

Speaker 1 (02:50):
And then there was also, wasn't there, Chelsea the sale
of a rental property and Pappa Toy toy that was
mentioned earlier in the trial.

Speaker 2 (02:55):
Yeah, so that's a pay per trial that Skelton followed.
The house sold for just over a million dollars. Interestingly,
Lee that money was deposited into an account run by Polkinghorn,
a five hundred k going to an investment fund in
Polkinghorn's name. For example, tens of thousands dollars of dollars
to his Ossie account, one hundred and fifty two thousand

(03:15):
dollars of that went to his son, and twenty six
thousand dollars was spent on a Sang Young ut that.

Speaker 3 (03:21):
It took I think it was almost a year. Certainly,
by March twenty twenty one the account balance was back
at five thousand dollars. So it took a period of
time for the balance of the funds to be dispersed
on a variety of different smaller spending items.

Speaker 2 (03:39):
But as you've said before, Adoptor polkinhorns the sole authority
on this particular account.

Speaker 3 (03:44):
Quick all right.

Speaker 2 (03:47):
Skilton went on to establish the couple's worth, their network worth.
Looking at their two properties, the Remuera one and Rings Beach,
investment accounts, personal accounts and trust accounts. They were worth
nearly ten point five five million dollars. A defense lawyer,
Ron Mansfield pointed out that when a couple chooses to
separate assets, no matter whose name they're in, it would

(04:08):
be divided fifty to fifty.

Speaker 1 (04:09):
Chelsea, thank you very much, really appreciate its Chelsea Daniels
Court reporter, and you can Listen to more of Chelsea's
coverage on the podcast Accused the Polkinghorn Trial. That's on
iHeartRadio or of course, wherever you get your podcasts. For
more from Hither Duplessy Allen Drive, listen live to news
talks it'd be from four pm weekdays, or follow the
podcast on iHeartRadio.