A Christchurch engineer has been fined and disciplined after saying he visited a quake-damaged property when he did not.
An Engineering New Zealand's disciplinary committee found that Pavol Csiba signed a misleading report, which he later failed to correct despite "multiple opportunities". His appeal against the finding was dismissed.
Csiba was fined $1000 and ordered to pay over $8000 in costs. He must also undertake further professional development on being an expert witness by January or his Engineering New Zealand membership will be suspended for six months.
In the 2015 report, Csiba said he had been engaged by a law firm to "complete a visual inspection" and "prepare an engineer's report to determine the damage" to the property.
He told the committee that he signed the report on behalf of his employer, and never hid the fact that he had not visited the property.
The committee found that the report was misleading "as a reasonable observer would read the report and assume that he had visited [the] site and based his recommendations on that site visit".