Gang culture with its strong ethic that you do not rip off fellow gang members saw police make use of Christchurch Head Hunters hand-written cash records in a Court of Appeal ruling confirming criminal proceeds confiscation of its Wigram gang pad; a property worth some half million dollars that Head Hunters inherited at no cost from previous owners, the disestablished Epitaph Riders.
The court dismissed Head Hunter claims that the Vickerys Road property had not been renovated with funds generated by illegal activity and that confiscation would amount to undue hardship.
Evidence was given that West Auckland chapter of Head Hunters set up what in effect was an operating subsidiary in Christchurch following the 2015 demise of local gang, Epitaph Riders. Most members of the Riders had left gang life; others ‘patched over,’ welcomed into Head Hunters.
At that time, Epitaph Riders headquarters in Wigram was all but abandoned. Title to the property was held in name of Lincoln Property Investments Ltd. Head Hunters’ members assumed ownership with a change in company personnel as directors and shareholders.
After senior members of Christchurch Head Hunters were jailed for drug dealing, police applied to have Vickery Road confiscated as ‘tainted property’ under the Criminal Proceeds (Recovery) Act.
Police claimed the gang headquarters was extensively renovated with profits from sale of methamphetamine, money extorted using standover tactics and profits from pokie machines sited at Vickery Road operated without a Gambling Act licence.
At a High Court hearing, evidence from a quantity surveyor valued cost of the renovations at some $180,000 on the assumption work was done by contractors at commercial rates.
Head Hunters claimed the work cost no more than $10,000. Materials were gifted, or picked up cheap on TradeMe, they claimed. Much of the work was done by gang members, using their trade skills, they said.
The renovations clearly cost more than $10,000, the Court of Appeal ruled.
At issue was source of the funds.
In evidence were notebooks seized by the police; a written record of gang cash transactions. The gang had an appointed bookkeeper, keeping a tally of cash received and cash expended. This was to ensure no member ‘ripped off’ their own gang.
The notebooks recorded sale of motor vehicles (which police wire taps identified as vehicles sold after being seized from its then owner), bar takings, raffle receipts, and pokie revenue, together with book entries of cash with no source references and other entries claimed to be donations. In court, Head Hunters’ lawyer acknowledged the likelihood of anyone making cash donations to Head Hunters was ‘pretty slim, but not impossible.’
Notebooks’ content was accepted by the Court of Appeal as evidence of cash generated from illegal activities. Attempts by Head Hunters to have the notebooks excluded as unreliable evidence were not successful.
Claims that confiscation of Vickery Road amounted to undue hardship was also dismissed.
Head Hunters said seizure of their half million dollar property was out of proportion to any illegally obtained cash spent on renovations. In contrast, ‘white-collar’ criminals having assets confiscated for tax evasion lose assets only to the value of the benefit wrongly obtained, they said.
Confiscation was no hardship, the Court said. Head Hunters paid nothing when gaining ownership of Vickery Road from Epitaph Riders.
McFarland v. Commissioner of Police – Court of Appeal (16.02.24)
24.058