Two generations of the Snook family forfeit assets totalling some $284,000 after laundering drug profits generated by Mongrel Mob activities. Snook family members have not been charged with any criminal offences, it is enough they received tainted money the High Court ruled.
In 2015 Tracey Snook agreed to sell her Wellington home in Roberts Street Tawa to Mongrel Mob member Steven Blance. Blance is now serving a fourteen year sentence following conviction on methamphetamine charges. There was no written sale agreement. She was paid in cash by instalments. The full purchase price paid in cash was disputed. Police put the figure at about $270,000. The High Court was told Mrs Snook remained as the registered owner and continued to live at the property for a further two months while Blance treated it as his own. Justice Ellis was to describe Ms Snook as a naïve and highly susceptible woman who had the great misfortune to come under the thrall of Mongrel Mob members. Communication intercepts by police identified Ms Snook knew the cash purchase price came from drug deals. The fact of money laundering surfaced when she took about $170,000 cash in a plastic shopping bag to Westpac intending to lodge the money in her bank account. Westpac refused to accept the deposit. Police were notified when she failed to provide any written evidence of her Roberts Street sale to Blance.
Justice Ellis declined to order immediate forfeiture of the full sale proceeds from Roberts Street as laundering proceeds of crime. Ms Snook had swapped one asset for another: her house for cash. The full extent to which she should be penalised is best left to the asset forfeiture proceedings currently underway against Blance, Her Honour said. A total of $109,154 held in Ms Snook’s name in two bank accounts was ordered forfeit under the Criminal Proceeds (Recovery) Act as the product of money laundering. This cash had been deposited in discreet lots of less than ten thousand dollars to avoid again alerting banking authorities.
Evidence was given that Ms Snook used some of the cash to help her son Jayde Snook and his partner Sarah Colledge purchase a home in Jillett Street, Tawa. Jayde raised a $264,000 ANZ mortgage for this purchase on the basis he would be putting in $21,500 from his Kiwisaver account together with $44,500 gifted by his grandfather. Any gift from his grandfather was a lie; it was money received from his mother. Jayde fabricated a letter purporting to evidence his grandfather’s gift. This forgery amounted to obtaining a loan by deception, by itself grounds for asset forfeiture under the Criminal Proceeds (Recovery) Act, Justice Ellis ruled. A bank balance of $24,900 in Jayde’s name was ordered forfeit. Sale of Jillett Street was also ordered with the net equity forfeit to government after repayment of the ANZ mortgage and reinstatement of $25,000 in a Kiwisaver account in Jayden’s name. Equity in Jillett Street was estimated at about $150,000.
Commissioner of Police v. Snook – High Court (27.09.18)
18.192