Jailed Auckland radio host Nate Nauer appeals ‘manifestly excessive’ prison sentence

Nate Nauer was sentenced to two years, nine months prison to be served concurrently after he pleaded guilty to six money laundering charges. Photo / Brett Phibbs

The Auckland media identity whose name was secret years before his identity was revealed when he was jailed in May for money laundering is appealing his prison sentence.

Former Mai FM host Nate Nauer and Vetekina Naufahu had their appeal called in the Auckland High Court on Tuesday morning before Justice Rebecca Edwards. Neither man attended the hearing, their appearances excused.

On May 24 in the Auckland District Court, Judge Nevin Dawson sentenced Nauer to two years, nine months prison to be served concurrently after he pleaded guilty to six money laundering charges.

He laundered $420,000 for the Comancheros, mainly via paying cash for luxury vehicles.

His lawyer Ron Mansfield KC, who sought home detention, lodged an appeal for Nauer and his co-accused, Vetekina Naufahu, brother of the gang’s New Zealand president Pasilika. Mansfield said at the time the sentences were “inappropriate and excessive”.

But Crown prosecutor Henry Steele, during his submissions at Tuesday’s hearing, said Nauer’s offending was not borne out of necessity but from selfishness.

The disgraced radio star knew the cash came from the sale of Class A drugs and was well aware of the harm they caused, Steele said. But he nevertheless chose to launder the drug money by purchasing luxury vehicles for gangsters, his partner and his father.

“These men offended because they chose to, and they chose to for very selfish reasons,” Steele said.

Crown prosecutor Henry Steele said Nauer knew the dirty cash was drug money and was well aware of the horrific effects of the sale of Class A drugs, but he chose to launder the ill-gotten gains anyway. Photo / File

Naufahu was jailed for two years and four months and Yonghao Huang, a car dealer, to two years and eight months.

Mansfield said the prison term for Nauer was “manifestly excessive” and should have been well below two years, the threshold where home detention becomes an option for Judges.

“The final sentence should have been well beneath two years and home detention.”

Nauer was the same media personality who was charged with money laundering and participating in an organised criminal group, as part of the police’s Operation Nova. The charges were dropped against him at trial due to insufficient evidence.

Mansfield, echoing his comments at sentencing, said after Nauer was first charged he lost his livelihood as a radio host and many close friends and family distanced themselves from him.

“He was left effectively having to fend for himself in the community.”

Nate Nauer socialising with Pasilika Naufahu (left), the president of the New Zealand chapter of the Comancheros gang.

“He was a high profile entertainer who was doing exceptionally well,” he said.

Nauer’s social use of cocaine got completely out of hand and spiralled into addiction, causing acute mental health issues, Mansfield said.

“Those within the criminal underworld … seized upon his vulnerability and engaged with him in this money laundering scheme.”

Nauer used the proceeds to fund his cocaine addiction, Mansfield said.

Huang and Nauer pleaded guilty to six charges of money laundering and Naufahu to two.

Judge Dawson adopted a starting point of three years, nine months for Nauer, before adding a three-month uplift for his offending while on bail, even though those charges were dropped, because he had breached bail conditions.

Nauer was given a 20 per cent discount for his guilty plea and smaller discounts for his previous good character and rehabilitative efforts, taking the end sentence to two years and nine months on all charges, to be served concurrently.

“All of those reductions are inadequate,” Mansfield said.

Mansfield said there needed to be a proper acknowledgement of Nauer’s previous good character, the rehabilitative steps he had undertaken and a further reduction for the impact of what he described as his wrongful initial arrest on the Operation Nova charges.

“There must be a meaningful reduction for personal good character and there must be a meaningful reduction for the impact that being wrongly accused in Operation Nova had on him,” Mansfield said.

While Mansfield sought a sentence of home detention, the result of the time had had spent in custody or on bail means that he in effect sought for Nauer to spend no time on home detention if the appeal was successful.

For Naufahu, Mansfield said the charges were separate from those of Huang and Nauer and related to a medical procedure - cosmetic calf implants - and rental payments of $80,000 for his family home. He said Judge Dawson set the starting point too high, which should have been 18 months.

At the May sentencing, Naufahu received a discount for matters raised in a cultural report.

Steele said that same cultural report had been used to obtain discounts at earlier sentencings, and a lesser discount for cultural factors should now apply.

Questions needed to be asked as to how long and on how many occasions those discounts should be available at the same level, Steele said.

Justice Edwards pushed back.

Cultural and background factors, such as an upbringing in a gang environment or exposure to drugs, narrowed an individuals choices in life, Justice Edwards said.

“It’s not ... a card you get to use once and then you get to hand back,” Justice Edwards said.

“The impact for background and cultural factors isn’t just expended on your first offence.”

Steele said the courts were grappling with that question.

“We should test the proposition that the discount exists for all time,” he said.

Justice Edwards reserved her decision on the appeal. It will be delivered in writing in the coming days or weeks.