Once inside, the gates were locked behind them, and they were “symbolically dumped” under the Mongrel Mob insignia on the wall before “being seriously assaulted in a prolonged and tortuous manner”.
Police raid the gang pad during their Operation Pakari, launched in respect to a spree of violence in 2022. Photo / NZ Police
The violence related to an internal gang feud which prompted a spree of violent crimes in 2022, including drive-by shootings and violent assaults that left people critically injured.
Operation Pakari, the police action in response to the violence, resulted in the prosecution of six gang members, who received jail terms ranging from three years and four months to six years.
One of those charged was Turoirangi Atarea Harmer-Elers, the “captain” or chapter president of the Mataura Mongrel Mob.
Harmer-Elers is now serving a prison term of three years and four months for kidnapping and assault with intent to injure, relating to the vicious beating of a gang member at the pad on August 9, 2022.
Harmer-Elers was not present at the pad at the time of the assault, but was prosecuted on the grounds that he ordered it.
Justice Christine Gordon, who sentenced Harmer-Elers, said the assault happened “in the context of Mongrel Mob internal gang discipline”.
Justice Christine Gordon sentenced Turoirangi Harmer-Elers to three years and four months in prison. Photo / George Heard
The victim was abducted from his Invercargill home and taken to the Mataura property, where he was thrown head-first onto the concrete and beaten.
The man was then taken to Harmer-Elers’ home, to show that his orders had been carried out, before being dropped off at Gore Hospital.
His injuries included a collapsed lung, a fractured eye socket and broken ribs.
The ordeal, from the time of his abduction to being delivered to the hospital, lasted two hours.
Restraining order made in March 2024
The Albion St properties are registered in the name of Bill Elers, Harmer-Elers’ father and a past president of the Mob chapter.
A restraining order was first made against them in March, under the Criminal Proceeds (Recovery) Act, which allows authorities to confiscate assets accumulated through significant criminal activity.
The Mongrel Mob pad in Albion St, Mataura, which the Crown is attempting to confiscate after it was used for the brutal beating of a member who wanted to leave the gang. Photo / Google Street View
About the same time, a restraining order was issued against another property in Mataura belonging to Harmer-Elers, and two classic 1950s Ford Customline cars.
The follow-on application for a forfeiture order against the gang headquarters was made under the Sentencing Act, on the eve of Harmer-Elers’ sentencing appearance in the High Court at Invercargill in September this year.
Because of its late filing, the forfeiture application was not dealt with on the day that Harmer-Elers was sent to prison, and the judge asked for submissions on the application to be heard in the future.
Harmer-Elers’ counsel, Ron Mansfield KC, subsequently filed submissions arguing that as the sentencing process was now complete, the court no longer had jurisdiction to hear the forfeiture application under the Sentencing Act.
Crown counsel Sarah McKenzie, however, submitted that the court still had jurisdiction to deal with the forfeiture matter, and Justice Gordon agreed with her.
The forfeiture application will be decided at a later date.
Symbol of ‘status and perceived power’
In their earlier application for a restraining order against the property, police said the gang pad was “symbolic of the gang’s status and perceived power in Southland, and is used to enable its members to plan and facilitate the commission of serious criminal offending”.
Because it was used in the “facilitation and concealment of criminal offending”, it was subject to forfeiture.
The Albion St property was described as “a well-established, fortified gang pad intended to prevent the public and police from observing activities within the property”.
Ric Stevens spent many years working for the former New Zealand Press Association news agency, including as a political reporter at Parliament, before holding senior positions at various daily newspapers. He joined NZME’s Open Justice team in 2022 and is based in Hawke’s Bay. His writing in the crime and justice sphere is informed by four years of frontline experience as a probation officer.