Jeffs had already accepted a sentence indication by Judge Crayton, so he knew he wouldn\u2019t be going to jail.<\/p>\n
From trespass to threats <\/p>\n
The court\u2019s summary of facts states that Jeffs was trespassed by Sachin Dhamija, more commonly known as Anand, on October 6, 2023.<\/p>\n
When served with the trespass notice, Jeffs threatened to cause serious damage to the business, saying, \u201cIf you open the shop, I will damage it\u201d.<\/p>\n
On October 30, two days before the opening, Jeffs was seen on CCTV returning to Dhamija\u2019s laundromat at 8.48pm.<\/p>\n
It was closed, so he walked up and peered through the window for some time.<\/p>\n
The next day, Jeffs went to Dhamija\u2019s home to serve a trespass notice on him.<\/p>\n
He told Pooja Dhamija, who was home with their children, that \u201cIf you\u2019re going to open your shop, my business partners are going to damage the shop and I won\u2019t be responsible\u201d.<\/p>\n
Jeffs returned to Maxaclean at 9.43pm on November 1, looking around the store before briefly leaving and returning six minutes later to take a photo or video of the shop.<\/p>\n
On November 6, at 11.40pm, two men turned up at Maxaclean armed with a handsaw and hammer. They cut the gas pipelines and removed two gas heaters. <\/p>\n
The gas was left flowing all night, risking an explosion.<\/p>\n
The business was closed for two days as the damage was repaired. The stolen heaters were never recovered.<\/p>\n
Jeffs paid one of the men $250 to carry out the job.<\/p>\n
On the evening of March 7, 2024, Jeffs was seen on CCTV walking back and forth outside the laundromat holding his phone and taking photos. <\/p>\n
Four hours later, an associate of Jeffs returned to the shop and graffitied the front of it.<\/p>\n
A $325 flag was stolen the following month.<\/p>\n
On June 11, Jeffs approached a customer leaving Maxaclean and spoke to her for \u201csome time\u201d.<\/p>\n
Two men were paid by Tim Jeffs to rip out the gas water heaters from behind Maxaclean Laundromat in Hillcrest, Hamilton.<\/p>\n
He returned to the store at 8.19pm on July 4, and stood outside \u201cfor a long period of time, examining the store, before leaving and returning at 9.18pm\u201d, to stare at the shop again.<\/p>\n
When arrested, Jeffs told police, \u201cThe guy is nuts\u201d, and \u201cI know he jumps up and down and he tries to trash my name with the neighbours, I can\u2019t understand what angle he\u2019s coming at this time\u201d.<\/p>\n
He refused to comment on the offending and, when asked about making threats, replied, \u201cI don\u2019t think there were any threats made.\u201d<\/p>\n
NZME phoned Jeffs at Gull Whitikahu to find out why the behaviour started and whether he was planning to stop.<\/p>\n
Jeffs was initially uninterested in commenting, but called back shortly afterwards to say that Dhamija wasn\u2019t always correct in what he said and to be careful about what was reported.<\/p>\n
Hillcrest Self Service Laundromat owner Tim Jeffs peers through the window of Maxaclean laundromat on the night of October 30, 2023, two days before it officially opened.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat he\u2019s told you is probably a bunch of porkies,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
When asked if it was all going to stop, and if he would move on, Jeffs hung up.<\/p>\n
NZME caught up with Dhamija at his Hillcrest laundromat and asked how the debacle came about. <\/p>\n
He said that Jeffs had operated a laundromat in the premises before his lease expired.<\/p>\n
Jeffs then moved across the road, but another person started up a laundromat at the site. <\/p>\n
Dhamija then took over.<\/p>\n
Dhamija claimed that Jeffs started asking questions about what was going in there before he\u2019d opened, and that was why he had to trespass him on October 6.<\/p>\n
He then asked his electrician to install a security camera, and caught Jeffs turning up and peering inside.<\/p>\n
Maxaclean Laundromat owners Sachin and Pooja Dhamija outside their business on Cambridge Rd, Hamilton. Photo \/ Belinda Feek <\/p>\n
NZME has seen several videos showing Jeffs walking past, or approaching the business, of it being graffitied, and of the gas pipes being ripped out.<\/p>\n
In CCTV footage of Jeffs speaking to Pooja Dhamija at the family home on October 31, Jeffs tells her, \u201cThe problem is you guys are opening up to try and take my business.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy business is across the road, so by you opening up across the road you are going in direct competition with my business.\u201d<\/p>\n
When Pooja Dhamija tells him that customers can choose, Jeffs says, \u201cThere are not different sets of customers.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey\u2019re the same customers … you are setting up to take my customers, that\u2019s what you\u2019re doing.\u201d<\/p>\n
Timothy Jeffs approaching the Dhamijas’ home three weeks after being trespassed from their laundromat. <\/p>\n
He can then be heard saying that his \u201cbusiness partners\u201d are unhappy about the Dhamijas setting up, and tells her to move the laundromat to a different location. <\/p>\n
She says they can\u2019t, and Jeffs responds by saying he will lower his prices, and that his business partners are \u201cbad\u201d people.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m not responsible for what [they] do,\u201d he tells her.<\/p>\n
A younger Tim Jeffs outside his other business, Gull Whitikahu, in 2017. Photo \/ Natalie Akoorie<\/p>\n
It remains unclear whether the issues between the businessmen have ceased.<\/p>\n
Supervision and community detention<\/p>\n
At Jeffs\u2019 sentencing, Judge Crayton and lawyer Mark Jepson, for Jeffs, discussed reasonable curfews for a community detention sentence that would allow him to work but would also prevent him from going \u201cwalkabout\u201d. <\/p>\n
Jepson said Jeffs\u2019 petrol station didn\u2019t close until 7pm, and he then faced a 33-minute drive home. <\/p>\n
Then, once his curfew kicked in, he would monitor his seven laundromat businesses.<\/p>\n
It was then decided that Jeffs\u2019 morning curfews would be either 4.30am or 5am, and night curfew would either be 8.15pm or midnight, depending on the day of the week.<\/p>\n
Judge Crayton sentenced Jeffs to nine months\u2019 supervision, and the maximum six months\u2019 community detention.<\/p>\n
He was also ordered to pay $1000 towards damages, and $3000 emotional harm reparation to Sachin Dhamija within seven days, and attend a non-violence programme or any other programme as directed by his probation officer.<\/p>\n
Belinda Feek is an Open Justice reporter based in Waikato. She has worked at NZME for 11 years and has been a journalist for 22.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Jeffs owns the Gull Whitikahu petrol station, along with seven laundromats around Hamilton, including the Hillcrest Self Service…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":569341,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[1443,2840,806,200334,6255,4596,17153,13023,692,99307,120430,280345,117,111,43,139,69,10521,2738,31472,1330,138250,1041,1314,280346,2735,26452,107973,8496],"class_list":["post-569340","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-about","tag-across","tag-as","tag-blackmail","tag-businessman","tag-competition","tag-damaged","tag-deemed","tag-he","tag-intentionally","tag-jeffs","tag-laundromat","tag-new","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-opening","tag-owner","tag-path","tag-raymond","tag-relentless","tag-rival","tag-road","tag-sabotage","tag-store","tag-threats","tag-timothy","tag-upset"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/569340","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=569340"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/569340\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/569341"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=569340"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=569340"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=569340"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}