Court bid to get Crafars back on land

Photo / Christine Cornege

A former South Taranaki mayoral candidate is embroiled in a legal battle with the receivers of the Crafar properties over a bid to remove patriarch Allan Crafar and his family from the land.

Huntly woman Elizabeth (Liz) Lambert is seeking an injunction stopping KordaMentha from kicking the Crafars off the property, because she wants to buy the 16 farms for herself and keep the Crafars as tenants.

The Crafar empire, once New Zealand's biggest private dairy operation, was placed in receivership almost two years ago owing more than $200 million to banks and PGG Wrightson.

Shanghai's Pengxin International Group agreed to spend $200m buying the farms and upgrading the 16 farms in January, after a bid by Natural Dairy was rejected by the Government on the Overseas Investment Office's recommendation.

That agreement cannot be overridden, unless Pengxin's bid is knocked back by the Overseas Investment Office.

Sir Michael Fay has also declared his interest in buying nine of the properties - if the Pengxin bid falls through.

KordaMentha lawyer Bruce Stewart said Lambert, who stood for South Taranaki District mayoralty last year, claimed she struck a deal with the Crafar family to purchase the farms on August 27.

It's understood she's now seeking to amend her earlier injunction application because the Crafars have already left the properties under an agreement they reached with the receivers earlier in the year.

"Initially she wanted an order preventing the receivers from asking the Crafars to leave the farms. She wanted to keep them on as her tenants. But now they have left she is wanting an order that they be allowed to go back on the farms."

The case is due to be heard in the High Court in Tauranga this afternoon.