A High Court Judge has turned down a Napier man's bid to get back $36,715 found under a pillow by police in a drugs raid more than one-and-a-half years ago.
Justice Cheryl Gwyn's decision, determining that "on the balance of probabilities" the cash was "tainted" and forfeiture to the Crown was justified, was delivered on Monday.
It follows a hearing at the High Court in Napier on April 19, in which 54-year-old Christopher Lawson opposed a police application for forfeiture of the cash, which had been found under a pillow. Drugs paraphernalia was also found in the search of the woman's home, a single-bedroom flat in Jull St, Napier, on October 9, 2019.
Lawson did not live at the flat, which police said was occupied by two people with methamphetamine-dealing convictions, and he was not there when it was searched.
The woman denied ownership of the cash and in May last year Lawson reported stolen receipts he had relating to the money and claimed ownership, saying it was money given to him over up to 10 years by people he was unable to name, to support his fight against cancer, and it was given to the woman for safe-keeping.
