staged peaceful protests<\/a> in the past against eviction actions.<\/p>\nSupporters this week called for an \u201coccupation and peaceful protest\u201d in posts widely shared on social media, saying the wh\u0101nau had been served an eviction notice \u201cto leave their own whenua\u201d.<\/p>\n
![\"Another]()
Another of the Maket\u016b Rd properties subject to the forfeiture order. Photo \/ Sandra Conchie<\/p>\n
One post said the protest action would start today with \u201cno set end date\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is injustice. This is discrimination. This is a direct attack on te iwi M\u0101ori!\u201d it said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis whenua has been inherited through generations. The system repeatedly fails our people. The community will not stand by while wh\u0101nau are stripped of their rights to live in peace.\u201d<\/p>\n
On Maket\u016b Rd this morning, cars lined both sides of the street outside the three seized properties, which are decorated with flags.<\/p>\n
Trespass notices are posted on the fences.<\/p>\n
A handful of adults and children were sitting on armchairs and other seating outside one of the properties. The atmosphere was peaceful.<\/p>\n
NZME has approached a wh\u0101nau spokesperson for comment.<\/p>\n
A police spokesperson said they were aware of planned action in Maket\u016b and \u201cready to assess and respond to calls for service as required\u201d.<\/p>\n
A spokesperson from the Official Assignee office said it had been ordered by the court to sell 631, 633 and 634 Maket\u016b Rd.<\/p>\n
The properties remained unsold, the spokesperson said.<\/p>\n
The Official Assignee obtained a High Court order last October allowing possession of the property.<\/p>\n
The spokesperson said until recently, \u201cservice of the possession order had only been possible on one occupant\u201d.<\/p>\n
The most recent service on September 23 was \u201cto ensure that all parties at the property had received the possession order\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Official Assignee is seeking the occupants of the properties to voluntarily comply with the court order without the need for further orders from the court.\u201d<\/p>\n
The office would consider its other options \u201cshould the occupants not voluntarily comply\u201d.<\/p>\n
It said the Criminal Proceeds (Recovery) Act allowed the Crown to recover assets believed to be unlawfully acquired, even without a criminal conviction. The burden was on the asset-holder to prove they were legitimately obtained.<\/p>\n
Recovered money from forfeited assets went into the Proceeds of Crime Fund, which can be drawn on for such services as reducing drug harm or disrupting organised crime.<\/p>\n
Court documents revealed that of the $1.17m the couple was said to have obtained through crime, $914,445 was outstanding after the 2019 sale of another forfeited property \u2013 a Whakam\u0101rama forestry block Nicholas owned a half-share in.<\/p>\n
The rateable value of the properties combined is $1.755m, according to the Western Bay of Plenty District Council rating database.<\/p>\n
Sandra Conchie<\/a> is a senior journalist at the Bay of Plenty Times and Rotorua Daily Post who has been a journalist for 25 years. She mainly covers police, court and other justice stories, as well as general news. She has been a Canon Media Awards regional\/community reporter of the year.<\/p>\nAdditional reporting by Samantha Motion.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Nicholas, also known as \u201cPop\u201d, fought to keep the properties, arguing it was inherited land and he had…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":56086,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[432,4282,43295,47153,10808,47154,1328,78,12514,47152,111,43,139,69,19719,1523,1562,1356,25394,1886,1529,42580,30859],"class_list":["post-56085","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-action","tag-boss","tag-brewing","tag-confiscated","tag-crown","tag-forfeited","tag-gang","tag-in","tag-leave","tag-maket","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-ordered","tag-over","tag-plenty","tag-properties","tag-protest","tag-support","tag-three","tag-waterfront","tag-whnau"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56085","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=56085"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56085\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/56086"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=56085"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=56085"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=56085"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}