Court takes $500,000 off cannabis dealer

A jailed cannabis dealer has lost most of his $500,000 ill-gotten gains but been allowed to retain a small amount for "rehabilitation purposes".

In a reserved decision in the High Court at Wellington yesterday Justice Warwick Gendall made a pecuniary penalty order for $500,000 against Michael Anaru under the Proceeds of Crime Act.

Anaru was jailed last month for four years and three months after being convicted of running a $5000-a-day cannabis business from his Porirua state house.

Police found $236,190 cash in a storage unit, and $276,275 in Anaru's four bank accounts.

Anaru admitted the cash was from cannabis, and was all his drug money from the previous 12 months.

However, he claimed the banked money was from gambling.

But the judge dismissed Anaru's claim that the banked money came from gambling saying that he was using drug cash to fund his gambling.

He ordered $500,000 to be confiscated allowing Anaru to keep a small amount of cash for rehabilitation, the judge said.

Anaru's lawyer, Chris Nicholls, said he hoped the $500,000 would be put back into the Cannons Creek community where Anaru accumulated the money.

- NZPA