{"id":531865,"date":"2026-07-18T06:14:11","date_gmt":"2026-07-18T06:14:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/531865\/"},"modified":"2026-07-18T06:14:11","modified_gmt":"2026-07-18T06:14:11","slug":"ashburton-cannabis-grower-haylee-mcgraths-house-placed-under-restraining-order","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/531865\/","title":{"rendered":"Ashburton cannabis grower Haylee McGrath\u2019s house placed under restraining order"},"content":{"rendered":"

Police also found harvested cannabis<\/a> with a dry weight of 704g in the house, packages of product with a further 184g, and numerous labelled glass jars containing cannabis of different strains.<\/p>\n

In a kitchen freezer, they found 20 blocks of cannabis butter with a total weight of nearly 2kg.<\/p>\n

In October 2024, McGrath pleaded guilty in the Ashburton<\/a> District Court<\/a> to charges of cultivating cannabis, selling cannabis, importing cannabis seeds into New Zealand, possessing seeds, possession of cannabis for supply, and possession of cannabis butter for supply.<\/p>\n

She was sentenced to nine months of home detention.<\/p>\n

Now, nearly two years after the raid, police are taking civil court action to confiscate McGrath\u2019s house under the Criminal Proceeds (Recovery) Act 2009<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The act is intended to help fight crime by seizing the money and assets that criminals make from it.<\/p>\n

McGrath told police she sustained a back injury about eight years before they raided her, and began growing cannabis to help her manage the pain.<\/p>\n

She imported seeds from Britain initially, but these did not grow well, so she began cloning plants.<\/p>\n

She had been growing the drug for about four years, according to a High Court judgment dealing with a police application for a restraining order over the house.<\/p>\n

\u201cOver this time, the operation expanded to include supplying cannabis to friends with similar needs and supplying cannabis as payment for tradespeople such as builders, electricians and plasterers who worked on the property undertaking renovations,\u201d the judgment said.<\/p>\n

Police seized McGrath\u2019s phone and found numerous messages between her and others about the supply of cannabis.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere were also messages engaging tradespeople to undertake work on her property in exchange for cannabis.\u201d<\/p>\n

Investigations found that the power usage at the house was higher during the cultivation period than after the raid brought it to an end.<\/p>\n

An analysis of McGrath\u2019s financial dealings showed deposits into her bank accounts from \u201cthird-party sources\u201d \u2013 those not connected to her known income \u2013 of more than $61,000 over three years.<\/p>\n

Cash deposits were used to pay for renovations, rates and mortgage repayments connected to the property.<\/p>\n

Justice Melanie Harland said she had reasonable grounds to believe that the property was \u201ctainted\u201d by being acquired or maintained through significant criminal activity.<\/p>\n

This would make it liable for confiscation under the criminal proceeds legislation.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am also satisfied, on a preliminary basis, that the income derived from the sale of cannabis enabled [McGrath] to service the mortgage over the property, pay rates and fund improvements,\u201d Justice Harland said.<\/p>\n

She granted the police application for a restraining order over the Ashburton property.<\/p>\n

Action under the criminal proceeds law is usually a two-stage process.<\/p>\n

After a restraining order is issued, police gather evidence and usually return to the High Court later to seek a forfeiture order transferring ownership of the \u201ctainted\u201d property to the Crown permanently.<\/p>\n

The money from the liquidated assets is placed in a fund which is then used to offset the social effects of crime, such as through rehabilitation services, or to pay for crime prevention measures.<\/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":"Police also found harvested cannabis with a dry weight of 704g in the house, packages of product with…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":531866,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[38265,17285,19392,262530,10053,262531,111,43,139,69,29691,21940,242049,8238],"class_list":["post-531865","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-ashburton","tag-cannabis","tag-grower","tag-haylee","tag-house","tag-mcgraths","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-order","tag-placed","tag-restraining","tag-under"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/531865","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=531865"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/531865\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/531866"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=531865"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=531865"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=531865"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}