Police illegally listened to phone calls between a convicted Northland drug baron and his lawyer but the prisoner's rights were not breached, the Supreme Court has ruled.
The country's top court this week dismissed Max John Beckham's applications against a sentence of 18 years and leave to appeal against his conviction.
The wealthy Far North businessman, 67, claimed authorities breached the Bill of Rights Act by intercepting calls he made from prison to trial lawyer Murray Gibson and on one occasion to his son, who then handed the phone to a property lawyer.
Beckham was sentenced by the High Court on charges of conspiracy to manufacture and supply methamphetamine and supplying methamphetamine, cocaine, cannabis oil and ecstasy. He was originally sentenced to 13-and-a-half years' jail with a minimum non-parole term of seven years but the Court of Appeal, after a Crown application, changed it to 18 years' jail with a minimum nine years' non-parole.
On August 18, 2009, police began listening to recorded calls supplied by Corrections and were instructed not to listen to any directed to Mr Gibson.