{"id":454907,"date":"2026-06-01T04:13:09","date_gmt":"2026-06-01T04:13:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/454907\/"},"modified":"2026-06-01T04:13:09","modified_gmt":"2026-06-01T04:13:09","slug":"northsouth-livestock-agents-william-and-kathryn-reid-accused-of-false-nait-records-after-cows-vanish","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/454907\/","title":{"rendered":"Northsouth Livestock agents William and Kathryn Reid accused of false NAIT records after cows vanish"},"content":{"rendered":"

Under the NAIT Act, those involved in livestock trade must provide a NAIT<\/a> number linked to a physical address where animals are being kept.<\/p>\n

The purpose is to track stock from 9 months old until death, and provide information on their location or movement to improve biosecurity management and risks to human health.<\/p>\n

The Reids have a history of farming in the South Island and incorporated Northsouth Livestock in 2020.<\/p>\n

They acted as agents for farmers in the North and South Islands who were looking for herds of dairy cattle.<\/p>\n

When the couple bought cattle from the South Island, the animals were transferred to the Reids\u2019 NAIT number and were required to be transferred out on sale.<\/p>\n

The address linked to their NAIT number was a beachside property of less than an acre on Bream Bay Drive in Ruak\u0101k\u0101, Northland.<\/p>\n

MPI investigators<\/a> became concerned after visiting the property and seeing that it was incapable of housing the thousands of cows Northsouth had registered over the years.<\/p>\n

In Crown openings, Ina Stewart said the Reids traded for three years, logging details for about 1800 cows, knowing they had provided false information.<\/p>\n

\u201cNo animals were ever held on the property. This was a lifestyle block and was, to put it plainly, unable to hold livestock,\u201d Stewart said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis created a gap where it is unknown precisely where the animals were located or whether they had in fact come into contact or mixed with other herds which could create a bio-hazard risk.<\/p>\n

\u201cThose animals were effectively lost and unable to be accounted for.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe prosecution submits this was a matter of convenience, which created a biosecurity risk. Simply put, these animals are unable to be traced.\u201d<\/p>\n

The address registration<\/p>\n

Wayne McKean, for William Reid, said his client was responsible for the transport of the animals and that it was his wife who set up the NAIT number.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat address was provided by his wife to NAIT to simply say that is where he lived and that is the place from which he ran his business.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is his case [that] he obtained a NAIT number to register himself as a person in charge of an animal (PICA). It is arguable the act required him to do that.\u201d<\/p>\n

McKean said that, every time an animal was registered to his NAIT number, \u201che was not saying this animal is going to my home\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe was saying this animal was under my charge while I\u2019m transporting it to another farm.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"WayneWayne McKean (pictured) said Bill Reid left the NAIT administration to his wife. Photo \/ NZME<\/p>\n

Kathryn Reid\u2019s lawyer, Rebecca Hunter-Kelson, said she registered the address at the request of her husband with the intention of saying it was where they operated their businesses.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt no point did she say this is a farm.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hunter-Kelson said Kathryn Reid was acting with an honest and genuine belief that the pair were meeting their obligations under the NAIT.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe NAIT Act is not well worthy of defining obligations,\u201d Hunter-Kelson submitted.<\/p>\n

MPI officer Rick Solomon said that, when he first checked the property\u2019s records in 2023, it showed several hundred animals listed as alive.<\/p>\n

But when he arrived for a site inspection, he found \u201cnone at all\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt just looked like a typical coastal beach property,\u201d he told the court.<\/p>\n

In an evidential interview played to the court, William Reid said he did not have access to the NAIT system, but his wife did.<\/p>\n

Disappearing cows<\/p>\n

William Reid told MPI they required a NAIT number to buy stock from the South Island because they were often unsure where the animals would be going.<\/p>\n

When they bought stock, they were required to provide the NAIT number within 48 hours, which Reid did for transporting purposes.<\/p>\n

They bought stock from the South Island as they were better quality. They would be loaded onto trucks and brought north, but often the receiver would not log their NAIT number.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe definition of a NAIT location is a NAIT location where animals are held,\u201d Solomon put to him in his interview.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve obviously filled that out wrong,\u201d William Reid responded.<\/p>\n

Solomon referred to several entries of cattle moved from a South Island NAIT number to Reid\u2019s number with no further information beyond.<\/p>\n

\u201cDid these animals come here?\u201d Solomon asked in the interview.<\/p>\n

\u201cNo,\u201d William Reid said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf they didn\u2019t come to this NAIT number, do you know where they went?\u201d Solomon asked.<\/p>\n

\u201cI would do, yes, I\u2019d have to look it up.\u201d <\/p>\n

William Reid said in his interview that the couple were having problems with animals disappearing from too many trucks.<\/p>\n

\u201cNow we photograph them and send them to everybody. That\u2019s the only way to do it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Judge Peter Davey has reserved his decision for late June.<\/p>\n

Shannon Pitman is a Whang\u0101rei-based reporter for Open Justice covering courts in Te Tai Tokerau. She is of Ng\u0101puhi\/Ng\u0101ti P\u016bkenga descent and has worked in digital media for the past five years. She joined NZME in 2023.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Under the NAIT Act, those involved in livestock trade must provide a NAIT number linked to a physical…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":454908,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[1117,74,17901,7818,95,11405,79504,14647,16843,71,10053,121444,59671,15288,39084,231384,3556,111,43,139,231383,69,1118,9090,11789,105772,83730,6211,165,2742,78927,29661,6506,10744],"class_list":["post-454907","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-accused","tag-after","tag-agents","tag-allegedly","tag-and","tag-cattle","tag-cows","tag-discovered","tag-false","tag-from","tag-house","tag-investigators","tag-kathryn","tag-livestock","tag-location","tag-nait","tag-national","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-northsouth","tag-nz","tag-of","tag-records","tag-reid","tag-seaside","tag-supposed","tag-system","tag-their","tag-thousands","tag-tracing","tag-vanish","tag-vanished","tag-william"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/454907","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=454907"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/454907\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/454908"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=454907"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=454907"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=454907"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}