Czech drug smuggler Karel Sroubek has claimed a financial interest in the Remuera home. Photo / Michael Craig
Czech drug smuggler Karel Sroubek has claimed a financial interest in the Remuera home. Photo / Michael Craig
A Remuera home owned by Czech drug smuggler Karel Sroubek's parents-in-law has been taken off the market not long after a burglar allegedly broke into it.
Barfoot & Thompson had earlier listed the four-bedroom house for sale with a $2.3 million price tag.
Sited on 1343sq m of land, the large block came with planning permission to subdivide it and build two more homes on the property.
"Act fast because large subdividable sections in Remuera with [an] affordable price will soon be a thing of the past," the advertisement stated.
However, the listing has now been removed with saleswoman Cici Wang confirming the agency was no longer selling the home.
However, she didn't say why this had happened and directed the Herald to talk to her Remuera branch office, where a spokeswoman said they would be making no futher comment on the property.
Sroubek is at the centre of an immigration controversy after he was granted New Zealand residency, despite being in prison for drug smuggling.
It emerged yesterday that he had also claimed a financial interest in the Remuera home by placing a caveat on it on October 26.
Czech citizen Karel Sroubek was granted New Zealand residency, despite being in prison on for drug-smuggling. Photo / Steven McNicholl
Sroubek's in-laws, who appear to be based in Russia, are listed as the property's owners, and court documents show that Sroubek had paid more than $160,000 towards clearing a loan held on the house.
Sroubek and his wife had been living in the bungalow before he was sent to prison, according to media reports.
The home was also alleged to have been recently burgled.
National Party deputy leader Paula Bennett asked Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern in Parliament yesterday whether an Immigration NZ investigation into why Sroubek had been granted residency would also examine the burglary at the property.
"Will new information being looked at in the Karel Sroubek case include the burglary of his estranged wife's house just days after Sroubek learnt it had gone on the market?" she said.
The Remuera home had been listed with a $2.3m price tag. Photo / Michael Craig
Sroubek today released a statement denying being involved in the burglary.
"The National deputy leader, by her questions in Parliament, has implied I may have had something to do with an alleged burglary of a property I have an interest in," he said.
"The allegation I was involved in that burglary is completely without foundation. I was not involved in the burglary."
The controversy over why Sroubek was granted residency has led to questions being raised about the ability of embattled Immigration Minister Iain Lees-Galloway and his team to vet immigrants.
