A Russian national claims NZ Police breached his rights under the Privacy Act. Photo / Alex Cairns
A Russian national claims NZ Police breached his rights under the Privacy Act. Photo / Alex Cairns
When his attempts at emailing failed, Alexander Pryazhnikov tried to woo a woman with seven public billboards asking for a date - but instead she complained to police.
Now the Russian national has launched a claim against the New Zealand Police for allegedly breaching the Privacy Act by withholding information and refusing to correct it.
Pryazhnikov, a graphic designer who at the time lived in Sydney, ordered placement of seven week-long advertisements from Phantom Billstickers in June 2018. The billboards were an attempt to ask an old friend - whom he hadn’t seen in seven years - on a date.
The seven posters placed on Wellington’s Cuba St read: “Dear [name of woman], I will be in Wellington during the weekend of 22-24 June. Would you spare a couple of hours? No other purpose than to see you, so any time is good”.
After discovering the billboards, the woman complained to the police. Her name is suppressed.
Pryazhnikov says his visa to visit New Zealand was revoked around a month later, and believes this occurred after police shared information about the complaint with Immigration NZ.
He claims his privacy was breached and launched proceedings in the Human Rights Review Tribunal, which began its hearing into the matter this week. Pryazhnikov is representing himself.
According to his evidence, he and the woman met in Europe in the late 2000s. He last saw the woman when he visited her in New Zealand in 2010. That trip ended on bad terms when the woman allegedly called him controlling, but Pryazhnikov claims they rekindled via email over the following years.
Phantom Billstickers sells advertising on small billboards in 14 centres nationwide. Photo / Greg Bowker
He repeatedly tried to contact the woman in 2018, telling her he wanted to come to New Zealand and visit her. She either didn’t receive or ignored the contact, so Pryazhnikov went about hiring the Cuba St billboards to gain her attention.
The billboards were meant to be a “romantic gesture designed to impress [the woman]”, his statement of claim said.
He also purchased a domain name for the site dear[woman’s name].co.nz, where he wrote a message to her.
After not receiving a reply from the woman, and despite having booked flights for those dates with the intention of seeing her, he chose not to travel to New Zealand.
He claims at this point the billboard company received a complaint from the woman saying she felt threatened by the billboards.
He says the company then sent information about the complaint to Pryazhnikov’s own employer’s general email address, causing “hurt and humiliation” in the workplace. His employer questioned him about the issue.
Through this, Pryazhnikov became aware of the woman’s police complaint and attempted to access all information police held about him.
An Official Information Act request lodged by Pryazhnikov was denied, as the act requires requesters to be New Zealand residents.
Over the following days, Pryazhnikov contacted police and explained his intentions were not to cause harm. He had a separate trip to Auckland booked for July. He informed police of the booking and said it was to visit an old colleague.
He says when checking in at Sydney Airport before that July flight, he was stopped by New Zealand authorities and asked if he was visiting the woman.
The Human Rights Review Tribunal sat today to hear Pryazhnikov's case. Photo / Jeremy Wilkinson
He claims he was refused boarding, and further claims his immigration file had an order that prevented him from travelling to New Zealand for the following 100 years.
That alleged order is now void, he says, because he is now a permanent Australian resident. He attended today’s hearing in Wellington in person.
He later filed multiple Privacy Act requests, demanding police and Immigration NZ release all information surrounding the case. Pryazhnikov claims police dragged their heels on these requests, and he had to complain until he received the information he sought.
He also claims various documents released to him were edited before release and contained “frivolous, scandalous and absurd allegations”. Requests made for the information to be corrected were not accepted, he claims.
He fears the investigation, over which he was never charged, could affect his immigration status.
Police deny almost all of Pryazhnikov’s claims. They have yet to cross-examine Pryazhnikov or call witnesses of their own.
The woman and Phantom Billstickers are not parties to the claim.
Pryazhnikov is seeking $20,000 in damages for hurt and humiliation, reimbursement for the foiled trip to Auckland, as well as a public apology to be posted on NZ Police’s social media channels.
The hearing is set down for three days and will continue tomorrow.
