Restraining order on DHB fraudster's assets

The High Court has issued a restraining order over assets owned by convicted fraudster Michael Swann.

The assets include 12 properties, 21 vehicles, five vessels and five containers alleged to contain vehicle parts including seven disassembled vehicles.

Swann, Otago District Health Board's former chief information officer, and his friend and business associate Kerry Harford were found guilty in December last year of defrauding the board of $16.9 million.

Swann, 47, was jailed for 9-1/2 years' jail with a non-parole period of 4-1/2 years. Harford, 48, was jailed for four years and three months.

The fraud also cost the scalp of board chairman Richard Thomson who was sacked by Health Minister Tony Ryall in the wake of the fraud.

At a hearing in the High Court at Dunedin earlier this month the Solicitor-General applied for restraining orders against Swann and 14 other respondents concerning property either owned by Swann or owned by third parties on the grounds it was "tainted" or subject to Swann's control.

The order was opposed in part by Swann's estranged wife, Anna Laura Devereux.

Justice Christine French, in a reserved judgment, said the key issues were whether household contents in possession of Ms Devereux could properly be the subject of a restraining order; whether it was desirable for there to be an order directing the Official Assignee to take custody and control of all of the property; and whether the court should make provision for meeting Ms Devereux's costs and living expenses out of the property included in the restraining order.

The Solicitor-General's application was granted, but subject to conditions concerning the welfare of Ms Devereux and her four children.

Justice French said the family were to have the right to occupy a property in Dunedin and the use of all chattels and furniture provided Ms Devereux paid the rates and all outgoings on the property and took reasonable care of the assets in her possession.

Ms Devereux was also given the right to receive rental from two tenanted properties, and the use of a 2005 Landcruiser until it was sold when she would be provided with a replacement vehicle for her own use.

- NZPA