Tobacco and related items, including a cigarette-making machine, were seized by police and Customs in a raid in Christchurch in June. Photo / NZ Customs Service
Tobacco and related items, including a cigarette-making machine, were seized by police and Customs in a raid in Christchurch in June. Photo / NZ Customs Service
Police are moving to confiscate nine houses and apartments in Christchurch, Auckland, Wellington and Queenstown which have been linked to an alleged black market tobacco operation.
The combined value of the real estate which is now under a High Court restraining order is around $5.7 million, based on council rating valuations.
The restraining order also applies to all other property “wherever located” belonging to a man accused of Customs fraud and tobacco-related offences, and two companies of which he is a director.
He faces several charges under the Customs and Excise Act 2018, along with one of burglary, after police and Customs raided an alleged illegal cigarette factory in Christchurch three months ago.
They seized 408kg of tobacco and more than 11,000 cigarettes. They alleged the operation was an attempt to evade over $850,000 in tobacco taxes.
More than 11,000 cigarettes were seized during the Customs and police raid on a Christchurch premises in June. Photo / NZ Customs Service
The man has been charged with the unlicensed manufacture of tobacco products, removing tobacco from a Customs-controlled area, defrauding Customs revenue and the importation of prohibited goods.
In the meantime, police have filed civil action to gain control of his real estate properties under the Criminal Proceeds (Recovery) Act 2009, which allows assets that have been “tainted” by significant criminal activity to be forfeited to the Crown.
One of the properties, in Russley, Christchurch, with a rateable valuation of $660,000, is the registered office of a company which the accused man is a director.
The company is the registered owner of the Russley house and all the other properties made subject to the restraining order issued in the High Court at Christchurch by Justice Jonathan Eaton.
Another of the man’s companies is also named in the police application for the restraining order, along with a second person who is connected in Companies Office records to one of the companies and the Russley house.
The seizure of assets under the Criminal Proceeds (Recovery) Act is usually a two-stage process.
First, police obtain a restraining order which prevents the assets from being sold or disposed of.
Then, often some months later, they go back to the High Court to apply for a forfeiture order, which transfers ownership of the targeted property to the Crown.
The law is used not just to seize real estate, but also bank accounts, cash, vehicles and even jewellery – anything considered to have been obtained through the profits of crime.
The assets targeted in this case include the Russley house and four other properties in Christchurch, another house in Redwood, and three apartments or units in Upper Riccarton and Burnside.
Seven properties subject to mortgage
Police are also going after an apartment in Manukau, Auckland; two apartments in Mount Cook, Wellington; and an apartment in Frankton, Queenstown.
Seven of the nine properties are subject to mortgages, issued by the ANZ, ASB and Westpac banks, or the Southland Building Society. If they are seized and sold by the Crown, the mortgages would be repaid.
The police application for the restraining order was supported by an affidavit 51 pages long with a further 229 pages of evidence.
“I am satisfied that there are reasonable grounds to believe that the first respondent has unlawfully benefitted from significant criminal activity related to the importation and distribution of tobacco products,” Justice Eaton said in a decision.
The Customs and police raid in June stemmed from the investigation into an alleged burglary on June 16 at a warehouse in Christchurch where boxes supposedly containing tea from China were being kept.
Customs said that about 80kg of tobacco was taken in the burglary.
In the raid on another premises a week after the burglary, police and Customs seized not just tobacco and cigarettes, but machinery used to manufacture cigarettes, cigarette brand labels and almost $2500 in cash.
Ric Stevens spent many years working for the former New Zealand Press Association news agency, including as a political reporter at Parliament, before holding senior positions at various daily newspapers. He joined NZME’s Open Justice team in 2022 and is based in Hawke’s Bay. His writing in the crime and justice sphere is informed by four years of front-line experience as a probation officer.
