Drug grower to lose land

4.00pm

The farms of Taranaki cannabis king Christopher Ross Jury are poised to go under the hammer after he failed meet today's deadline to pay over more than $660,000 to the courts.

As a result, either one or both of his two Tikorangi properties, worth about $1.9 million, can be sold to meet a $410,000 penalty under the Proceeds of Crime Act 1991, along with a $250,000 fine.

The sum is one of the largest in the country to be taken under the law.

Jury is serving a six-year sentence in New Plymouth Prison after he was found guilty of growing and selling cannabis, and money laundering in March 2002.

The Court of Appeal reduced the initial fine of $400,000 and $100,000 costs to a $250,000 fine.

In August last year, Jury had pleaded with the court not to confiscate the properties because his father wished for them to be handed down from generation to generation.

He was given seven months to find the money.

In a further decision released this week, the Court of Appeal refused to further extend the time to pay the money.

One farm on Otaraoa Rd, Tikorangi, is believed to be worth at least $1.4m while a run-off property on Stockman Rd is worth about $500,000.

The New Plymouth Court said today it had received no payment from Jury.

Jury's lawyer, Paul Goldsworthy, said he could make no comment as he had no instructions from Jury to do so.

Crown prosecutor for the case, Chris Wilkinson-Smith, said today that the matter would now be referred to the Official Assignee to commence action to sell either one or both of the farms.

- NZPA