Spy focus on vanished lecturer

By EUGENE BINGHAM, BRIDGET CARTER and CATHERINE MASTERS


Police seeking the so-called fourth man in the Israeli spy case want to talk to a New Zealander who has gone to Israel.

The day after Uriel Kelman and Eli Cara were caught trying to obtain a New Zealand passport, Tony Resnick, a former member of the Auckland Jewish Council, suddenly left his job at the Auckland University of Technology and flew out of the country.

Kelman and Cara, who pleaded guilty although they have lodged an appeal, were charged with Zev William Barkan, a former Israeli diplomat who is on the run. The Government believes the three men were working for Israeli intelligence agencies.

Police have been hunting a fourth New Zealand-based person they believe helped the trio.

The passport application, sent with Barkan's photograph, was lodged in the name of a wheelchair-bound man with cerebral palsy.

Mr Resnick, 35, was a respected and well-liked paramedic with the St John Ambulance in Auckland before taking a job as a lecturer in the division of healthcare practice at AUT two years ago.

On March 24, the day after Kelman and Cara were arrested, he was expected at lectures but did not turn up. The Weekend Herald has learned that he boarded a flight to Hong Kong. His wife and children left several days later.

Students were told he had had to go overseas because a friend had been in a car accident.

In June, he resigned from abroad, telling AUT he was unable to return to New Zealand because of family medical reasons.

Mr Resnick, a practising Jew, was born in New Zealand but has lived in Israel.

Yesterday the house where he stayed with his family was empty and locked up.

His father, Selwyn, said his son was abroad and he did not know when he would be back. He refused further comment.

Stephen Goodman, president of the Jewish Council in Auckland, said Tony Resnick had been a member of the council. He did not know him well but said Selwyn Resnick had told him recently his son had been thinking about going back to Israel for some time.

"He had lived in Israel for some time, he met his wife there, they came back here, I don't think he ever really settled."

Mr Goodman said he would be very surprised if Mr Resnick was involved as he had always seemed a "very straight-up" sort of person.

Assistant Commissioner Jon White said police were investigating several lines of inquiry, but he was not able to comment.

The father of the man whose identity was stolen said his son was a member of the St John Ambulance but he did not know if he had come into contact with Mr Resnick.

Mr Resnick is believed to have worked as a paramedic in Israel and was employed by St John in Auckland as an ambulance officer. He started in 1998 and worked as a casual until he left in June 2002.

Steve Walker, watch manager for St John Ambulance in Auckland, said that although he did not know him well, Mr Resnick was well-liked.



"He was very competent, a good-skilled person. Nice guy, pleasant to talk to ... He came to us as a qualified ambulance officer."

Mr Walker was not sure if his qualifications came from Israel but he presumed so: "He did a talk at one of our conferences about ambulance response in Israel."

AUT spokeswoman Heather Shiels said he resigned by email on June 9. Asked if the email was from Israel, she said: "I can't confirm that."

Mr Resnick was a paramedics lecturer at the Akoranga Campus on the North Shore. He started on contract and joined the full-time staff in February last year.

Ms Shiels said he had taken "leave of absence" on March 24. He had not been in contact, but that was not unusual when people left jobs.