$1M OF ASSETS SEIZED FROM BAY CRIMS

More Than $1 Million Worth Of Assets Held By Convicted Drug Dealers In The
Bay Has Been Seized By The Crown.

The latest seizure under the Proceeds of Crime Act is a lifestyle block
valued at $345,000 in the lower Kaimai Range, where police discovered a
sophisticated underground bunker growing cannabis plants.

The owner of the 2.1ha block, Heath Gregory Bell, was sentenced to five
years' jail after being found guilty of possession of cannabis for supply.

He also admitted possession of methamphetamine for supply and two charges
of cultivating cannabis.

The Crown made an application for the land to be forfeited, which was
granted last month.

They also made an application to seize another 2ha Peers Rd property valued
at $350,000 where Bell had grown cannabis, but this was not granted.

Senior police say the judge's decision to forfeit the land sends a strong
message to people dealing in the illegal drug trade.

Detective Sergeant Lew Warner, of Tauranga's Criminal Investigation Branch,
said the underground cannabis operation was significant and showed
substantial amounts of money were being made.

"He's paid the price. Everything he has gained he has lost," Mr Warner said.

"If police do catch operations like this, we will use the Proceeds of Crime
Act to take property and possessions that have been obtained by drug
offending."

Detective Sergeant Craig Hamilton, head of the Proceeds of Crime unit
covering the Bay of Plenty and Waikato, agreed the decision sent a clear
message of deterrence to those making money out of drugs and serious crime.

"Be involved in drug crimes and you are taking grave risks. The courts are
treating these crimes seriously."

Information released to the Bay of Plenty Times under the Official
Information Act (OIA) shows that over the past five financial years actual
funds returned to the Crown from the region through asset seizures was
$1,102,636, from a total pool of $1,384,478.

Of that, $1,096,136 came from the Western Bay alone.

The Crown doesn't get to keep the full amount as it is obliged to pay
mortgages and any other claims to third parties who had no involvement in
the offending but have an interest in the property.

Assistant Commissioner Peter Marshall said it was difficult to break the
figures down into actual years because the police did not record when the
actual settlements took place.

"A good example of this is the Warwick Reid case, which was initiated in
1996 with settlement only last year," he wrote in reply to the OIA request.

"This was a Tauranga case and represents the largest single seizure under
the Proceeds of Crime Act in the Western Bay of Plenty."

Mr Reid was a former deputy Crown prosecutor in Hong Kong, who returned to
New Zealand in disgrace after being convicted of accepting bribes there,
only to be jailed here in 1996 for attempting to pervert the course of justice.

His assets seized included a Mount Maunganui gym, the family home in Wairoa
Road and $170,000 in cash held in a family trust.

Under a new law, the Government hopes to haul in as much as $14 million a
year nationally in seized money and assets raised through crime.

Between 1995 and July 2003, $8.84 million in assets had been confiscated
nationwide - including a record $3.7 million in 2003 - through 57
forfeiture orders.

In comparison, New South Wales in Australia took $84 million over the same
period.

The Criminal Proceeds and Instruments Bill was introduced to Parliament in
June this year, but is yet to have its first reading.

Under the current Proceeds of Crime Act 1991, a person must be convicted of
a crime before assets can be seized.

But under the new bill, assets thought to be acquired through criminal
means can be seized without a criminal conviction being imposed.

The Crown would be able to seek a High Court order restraining a person's
assets if it could show the person benefited directly or indirectly from
serious criminal activity.

The legislation would reduce the profitability of gangs and make it harder
for them to finance future crimes.

People who could prove their assets were not funded by crime would have
them returned to them, but if they failed their whole estate might be
confiscated.

The Kaimai block of land seized last month will be put up for sale and once
the outstanding mortgage has been paid, the balance will be handed over to
the Crown.

Police made the find in February last year. Officers searched two
properties on Peers Rd in the Lower Kaimai Range.

At the 2.1ha property where Bell lived officers uncovered a trap door in a
small lean-to that lead to a bunker about 4m long, 2.5m wide and 1.8m high,
in which was housed a sophisticated watering and aerating system and 176
cannabis plants.