{"id":295990,"date":"2026-02-22T01:41:08","date_gmt":"2026-02-22T01:41:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/295990\/"},"modified":"2026-02-22T01:41:08","modified_gmt":"2026-02-22T01:41:08","slug":"drug-dealer-flees-australia-trying-to-evade-justice-in-far-north","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/295990\/","title":{"rendered":"Drug-dealer flees Australia, trying to evade justice in Far North"},"content":{"rendered":"

They arrested him, seized $10,600 in the house, and took the man to the Northland<\/a> Region Corrections Facility near Kaikohe, pending extradition.<\/p>\n

Details of the man\u2019s bid to evade justice are outlined in a civil court case, under which New Zealand police want to seize his assets.<\/p>\n

The man\u2019s name and that of a woman \u2013 described in court documents as his wife or ex-wife \u2013 have been suppressed by the High Court<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The man is called Mr B in a recent court judgment, and his wife is Ms H.<\/p>\n

The man has no criminal history in New Zealand, but has an extensive record in Australia<\/a>, including for drug-dealing. <\/p>\n

Possessing meth with intent to supply<\/p>\n

In August 2022, the man was charged in Western Australia with possession of a trafficable quantity of methylamphetamine \u2013 the word used in Australian law for methamphetamine \u2013 with intent to supply.<\/p>\n

At the time, he was living in South Australia<\/a>, but police alleged he was part of a national syndicate moving meth into Western Australia from other states.<\/p>\n

In addition to the criminal charges, Western Australia police moved to seize most of his property as being earned from the proceeds of crime. They served a \u201cfreezing notice\u201d on him in January 2023. <\/p>\n

The next month, the man fled across the Tasman. <\/p>\n

This had been pre-planned, judging by an intercepted phone conversation he had with his brother in July 2022, outlining a scheme to evade the Western Australia police by going to live with his wife in New Zealand.<\/p>\n

He moved in with her at her Far North property. <\/p>\n

He imported a Hyundai vehicle and later, after obtaining an insurance pay-out, purchased a quad bike.<\/p>\n

The man brought cash to New Zealand and deposited it into an ANZ bank account he had opened earlier. He later opened other bank accounts with Westpac.<\/p>\n

Police say he then directed associates in Australia to deposit about $1 million into the New Zealand accounts. <\/p>\n

Police say that the way he went about doing this met the test for \u201ccriminal activity\u201d, which made his assets in New Zealand liable for seizure under the Criminal Proceeds (Recovery) Act.<\/p>\n

Transferred funds \u2018obtained by deception\u2019<\/p>\n

They told the High Court that the man transferred the assets to New Zealand knowing they were subject to the Australian freezing notice, or made intentional false representations to others to allow it to happen.<\/p>\n

They alleged this was equivalent to the offence of \u201cobtaining by deception\u201d under the Crimes Act.<\/p>\n

Alternatively, the man brought assets into New Zealand to conceal them from the Western Australia police and avoid the freezing notice. This, police alleged, amounted to money laundering \u2013 also a Crimes Act offence.<\/p>\n

Police also said that the woman was made a signatory of the man\u2019s bank accounts in September 2025, after he was arrested and held in custody. <\/p>\n

Police said that because she knew, or recklessly did not question, that the money came from crime, the funds then became the subject of the offence of receiving.<\/p>\n

\"JusticeJustice Jane Anderson said there was evidence the man was seeking to “use New Zealand as a safe harbour”. Photo \/ Michael Craig<\/p>\n

On that basis, police applied to the High Court for a restraining order over three bank accounts, some funds held in a solicitor\u2019s trust account, and the Hyundai and quad bike. <\/p>\n

Justice Jane Anderson granted the restraining order under the Criminal Proceeds (Recovery) Act 2009.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is strong evidence that Mr B has been seeking to use New Zealand as a safe harbour to conceal and hold property in the context of seeking to avoid the effect of the freezing notice made against him in Australia, with the assistance of Ms H,\u201d the judge said. <\/p>\n

\u201cI conclude that the Commissioner [of Police] has met the threshold for a restraining order.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\u2019s Open Justice team in 2022 and is based in Hawke\u2019s Bay. His writing in the crime and justice sphere is informed by four years of frontline experience as a probation officer.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"They arrested him, seized $10,600 in the house, and took the man to the Northland Region Corrections Facility…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":295991,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[85,163223,33264,528,19553,78,6148,111,43,139,529,69,61,28355],"class_list":{"0":"post-295990","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-zealand","8":"tag-australia","9":"tag-drugdealer","10":"tag-evade","11":"tag-far","12":"tag-flees","13":"tag-in","14":"tag-justice","15":"tag-new-zealand","16":"tag-news","17":"tag-newzealand","18":"tag-north","19":"tag-nz","20":"tag-to","21":"tag-trying"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/295990","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=295990"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/295990\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/295991"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=295990"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=295990"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=295990"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}