Category: Radio New Zealand

Source: Radio New Zealand

There’s widespread support for the government’s new action plan to combat methamphetamine use, with the Drug Foundation commending its “health focused interventions”.

A mental wellness provider from northland is also welcoming the news, saying it’s a “fantastic start,” and the Chair of the Ministerial Advisory Group on Transnational and Organised Crime saying it was positive that multiple ministers were involved in order to address the issue in its “totality”.

Yesterday, the government announced what Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith called a “comprehensive action plan to combat methamphetamine harm in New Zealand.”

It’s the result of the Prime Minister’s ‘meth sprint team’ made up of the Ministers for Justice, Police, Customs, Courts and Mental Health, who were tasked with tackling the issue.

That came after a drastic rise in consumption of methamphetamine last year. RNZ investigated what community providers needed in response, which was largely more funding for grassroots solutions.

Paul Goldsmith said yesterday methamphetamine was something “we’ve been fighting for 20 years, and it’s been getting worse in the last little while.”

“We know that meth is a scourge on society.”

He pointed to parts of New Zealand who had been particularly affected, like Northland, where “communities have been blighted by meth.”

“Those communities are desperate for us to fight back, and that’s why we’re taking these extra steps to turn up the dial of our response.”

The response included a nationwide media campaign that will launch in the next few months, paid for by the proceeds of crime fund, that will raise awareness about the issue and the drugs harm.

An extra $30m over four years from the Mental Health and Addiction budget will go to front line services, increasing the services available to the hardest-hit communities.

Police will be able to intercept communications and search for electronically stored evidence with new enforcement powers, and an additional anti-money laundering unit will be set up.

It will also see more focus on disrupting supply chains in the Pacific Ocean, with Customs, the GCSB and the Defence Force conducting a series of maritime operations. There would also be consultation on strengthening border security.

Customs Minister Casey Costello said there was “a lot of risk” through South East Asia and South America, “but we are getting intercepts from all over the place.”

“We just had an arrest last weekend at the airport, 30 kilos of meth from citizens from the US trying to bring methamphetamine into the country.

“So it is coming at us from everywhere and we just need to be tighter across all of it.”

RNZ spoke to providers in Northland earlier this year about the spike in consumption.

Rākau Ora managing director Vanessa Kite told RNZ following the announcement she “absolutely” welcomed it.

“I don’t think we’ll ever have enough bloody money, to be honest. But right now it’s a fantastic start.”

She said the need was “huge” in Te Tai Tokerau, and it was “growing in a different way”, with younger people affected and more complex cases presenting.

What was required to tackle it was “long-term” and “sustained” investment, rather than the short term boosts they’d been getting, she said.

Kite welcomed the focus on meth as a social health issue, rather than an enforcement one.

“Prevention is everything,” she said. “We really need to be putting a lot of money into prevention, but also, education, support and connections.”

She suggested what was needed was more detox beds, and residential rehab options. She also wanted to see more focus on lived experience community providers.

“We’re often seen as the first port of call and the priority in meth help, and we’re paid the worst. In fact, many are doing voluntary work.”

Kite said at a community and grassroots level, she believed they had the solutions, “we just need the support to scale them up.”

The Executive Director at the New Zealand Drug Foundation Sarah Helm said she was “particularly pleased” with the health focused interventions.

“It’s good to see some emphasis on health approaches and additional investment that’s being made, because we know we can’t arrest our way out of the issue.”

What’s needed, Helm said, was treatment and assistance both earlier on in somebody’s journey, but also closer and more accessible to their lives.

She said it wasn’t about waiting until somebody’s experiencing the worst harms before they are offered help.

In order for the nationwide campaign to be effective, it would need to focus on destigmatisation, and promote the option of seeking help she said.

“Those communities who already experience the worst methamphetamine harms already know how negative the impact can be.

“So really grounding that campaign in what they’re experiencing and helping them to get information and support quickly will make that as effective as it possibly can be.”

Chair of the Ministerial Advisory Group on Transnational and Organised Crime Steve Symon told RNZ many of the planned actions were consistent with the recommendations made in the MAG’s reports.

Overall, he said the announcement is great, provided it is part of the solution to organised crime, not the whole solution.

“Methamphetamine is certainly an important issue, but it’s a subset of the bigger organized crime issue.”

The focus on health was also welcomed, because “as we’ve said in the reports, we don’t think locking people up is necessarily the solution,” said Symon. The government should be tough on those committing this crime and addressing that, but it wasn’t the only way to deal with it.

Looking at cutting off the supply coming into the country was important too, as well as “working on our customer base”, he said, “working on how many New Zealanders are willing to consume these drugs.”

The coalition government parties had campaigned on being “tough on organised crime” he said, and it was about understanding “what tough means.”

“It’s not just building more prisons and locking more people up.

“It’s certainly locking those up who need to be locked up because of the crimes that they’ve committed, but it’s also looking the broader social problem of how our country has been willing to consume twice as much methamphetamine as we did last year.”

Symon suggested being tough on crime could be possible by removing the customer base.

Ultimately though, what was missing was the coordination to pull it all together, “how to be accountable” he said, which was why the MAG had recommended a single minister in charge of responding to organised crime.

But he thought it was possible multiple ministers had come together to look at the issue of meth.

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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand

Source: Radio New Zealand

Former detectives have been left “stumbling for words” by police reports of a secret meeting in 1985 between a Department of Justice official and the key Crown witness in the murder prosecution of Ross Appelgren.

Appelgren was convicted of killing fellow inmate Darcy Te Hira inside the Mt Eden Prison kitchen on 6 January 1985. Appelgren always claimed he was not in the kitchen when Te Hira was attacked

The key witness, a convicted fraudster-turned-informant, was offered the possibility of a pardon and early release just weeks before Appelgren’s trial.

The RNZ podcast Nark has today reported on police records which say the government sent a Department of Justice official to “reassure the subject he would be well looked after, after he did give his evidence and that he would not be put into a prison of any kind after the trial”.

Then-Justice Minister Sir Geoffrey Palmer says, “if that was said, it’s a very bad thing”.

Former Detective Inspector Lance Burdett, who used to lead operations for the New Zealand Police witness protection programme, says he’s never heard of early release being offered to a witness before they testified.

“I’m stumbling for words. That’s flabbergasting…You certainly don’t say, ‘Hey, look, if you give the evidence, you’re going to be released at the earliest opportunity’. That’s fairytale stuff.”

The witness, who has permanent name suppression but is known in the podcast as Ernie, claimed to have seen Ross Appelgren murder Darcy Te Hira in Mt Eden prison on January 6, 1985. Appelgren was convicted of murder twice, but both times successfully petitioned the Governor-General to send his case back to the Court of Appeal. Appelgren’s last appeal has remained adjourned since 1994.

Appelgren died in 2013, and now his widow, Julie, is leading an effort to clear his name posthumously. Her lawyers hope to argue the appeal should continue in a hearing before the Court of Appeal expected next year.

When Ernie told police he’d seen the murder and police decided to make him their star witness, he demanded he be removed from Mt Eden for his own safety. Police agreed.

He was moved to New Plymouth prison, then to the Takapuna police station cells.

Ernie’s complaints about his conditions and concern for his safety escalated to the point the police and the Department of Justice decided to release him from prison. In June 1985, Ernie was moved to Christchurch, a month before Appelgren was due to stand trial.

Operation Icing

Police put Ernie up in a $50 per night suburban motel, guarded by police and prison officers, as part of a programme called Operation Icing.

The icing on the cake for Ernie was that – just eight months into his two-year sentence on more than 200 fraud convictions – he was doing his time in a motel with a large bedroom, a high-end TV, a video recorder, and a CD player.

As one police report said, the motel was “in a rural setting with access to large open grass areas”.

Taxpayers even paid for dinners at local restaurants and trips to Akaroa and Hanmer Springs.

Ernie went on to stay in the motel, then rental accommodation, from June 1985 to February 1987.

Operation Icing was, at the time, the most expensive witness protection programme in New Zealand history, costing more than $75,000.

In the weeks leading up to the trial, Ernie remained concerned about his future and doubted the police promises that he would not be returned to prison.

Seeking further assurance, Ernie wrote directly to the then Justice Minister, Geoffrey Palmer, in June 1985.

Police records report that Palmer dispatched an emissary, then-superintendent of Paparua prison, Charles Hood, to meet with Ernie at his motel.

Notes made by an unnamed police officer sitting in on the meeting recorded that Hood promised Ernie he would be “looked after” and said “the minister was looking favourably at a pardon after the trial and that while the minister was not in a position at the present time to guarantee anything, Mr Hood assured the subject [Ernie] that he would not simply be dumped and forgotten”.

A second report a day later reads, “Superintendent Hood had offered him a pardon as regards the remainder of his prison sentence”.

Further police reports show that 10 days later, on July 3, Hood returned to the motel to withdraw that offer.

The Department of Justice had decided no promises could be made until after the trial.

Ernie angrily said he’d refuse to testify.

When the officer in charge of the Appelgren investigation, Detective Chief Inspector Peter Jenkinson, heard of the Department’s decision, he intervened.

Jenkinson made it clear police had no intention of returning Ernie to prison because they needed to ensure the safety of their crucial witness.

Ernie never did go back inside.

‘Never seen anything like it’

Former detective Tim McKinnel, who’s part of the legal team working with Julie Appelgren, said he was astounded to read the police reports describing Hood’s meetings with Ernie and the fact they were never disclosed at either of Appelgren’s two trials.

“It is absolutely extraordinary. I’ve never seen anything like it”.

“ I can’t understand one, why you would put the department in that position and then, you know, perhaps easier to understand is why you wouldn’t disclose it because of its extraordinary nature and what it might tell you about what was going on.”

Sir Geoffrey Palmer told RNZ it was 40 years ago and he has no memory of the case or of Charles Hood.

“You have to understand that ministers act on advice. There are lots of officials doing work on this and they assure the minister and the minister signs things. I’m sure I gave attention to it properly at the time, but just have no recollection of it.”

Sir Geoffrey, interviewed in September this year, doesn’t recall any discussion of a pardon or early release, but agrees, “it’s a serious matter”.

“If that was said, it’s a very bad thing to say. I agree with that. But I have no memory of giving such assurances or giving him [Hood] any authority to say that… all I can say is that if an injustice occurred it needs to be sorted out in the courts now.”

Palmer said the juries who convicted Appelgren should have been informed about the Justice Department’s involvement with Ernie.

‘Quite possible there was an injustice done’

Hood died in 2021, and the police officer present at his meetings with Ernie is not identified in police documents.

While those notes are unambiguous and were written immediately after the meetings, further investigations by podcast host Mike Wesley-Smith have also uncovered an October 1986 letter from Palmer to Ernie’s lawyer, Roger Chambers.

It tells a different story from those described in the police documents.

Palmer wrote: “Department of Justice officials were at no stage involved in any discussion about the future relocation and protection of Ernie, nor were any promises made to him about future reward or assistance”.

Asked about the seeming contradiction, Sir Geoffrey said, “it’s quite possible there was an injustice done here”.

“I have to take ministerial responsibility about anything I did even back then and I do take it.

“But the difficulty is, the frailty of human recollection 40 years later when you have thousands of things as a minister to deal with, it’s really very difficult for me to say anything that’s very helpful to you.”

RNZ also asked the Police and Crown Law, which oversees prosecutions in New Zealand, about the revelations in these notes and reports. In an email, Detective Inspector Scott Beard, Auckland City CIB, wrote: “As this process is ongoing and has not been heard by the Court, it would be premature for Police to engage in detail at this point”. A Crown Law spokesperson told RNZ by email, “As with any other criminal appeal process that is before the Court, we will not be engaging with the media while it is at this stage”.

Nark is being released every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday on rnz.co.nz/nark and all podcast apps. It airs at 7pm Sunday on RNZ National.

– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand

Source: Radio New Zealand

[L1] Waimarino business owners hope for forecast rain

[L1] Concern tourists might cancel bookings

[L1] Wall of smoke provides spectacular but unwelcome backdrop to village.

A wall of smoke from the Tongariro National Park fire is providing a spectacular but worrying vista for a central plateau village.

The blaze has burned through up to 2500 hectares and is 20 percent contained.

Residents and business owners in nearby Waimarino are nervously watching on.

A long-term closure of the popular Tongariro crossing would keep away tourists – the area’s lifeblood.

It would be a stinging blow after tough years of Covid and then uncertainty over who would operate the ski fields on Mt Ruapehu.

Well into the evening on Sunday there was a constant hum of helicopters and planes fighting the imposing wall of smoke that loomed over Waimarino, formerly National Park.

Tour guide Stu Barclay, who owns Adrift Tongariro, took a group part-way up Mt Ruapehu on Sunday morning, before the access road was closed.

“The smoke was blowing upwards and the flames – when you saw the planes and the helicopters dispersing their water on the flames they were like midges on an elephant. They were tiny, so the flames must have been three to 10 metres tall.

“It was incredible.”

The group had a bird’s eye view of the fire, although initially some were disappointed they couldn’t walk the Tongariro Crossing.

“Tongariro’s really famous, so we talked to them about Ruapehu being similar but different.

“Their disappointment soon changed to excitement when they saw the fire from that angle. It was just terrifyingly exciting.”

He hopes forecast rain douses the flames so there’s no repeat of 2012, when the crossing was closed for weeks after a volcanic eruption.

He had also thought about what items were important at home to grab in case a quick evacuation was required.

Further stress after tough winter

At Adventure Lodge and Motels, owner Gillian Visser has had guests leave early or cancel – she reckons about a quarter of her immediate bookings.

It’s a devastating blow and one that’s caused her much stress.

“We’ve been through a really tough winter, financially – extremely tough. Then we get all this lovely fine weather and I have never in 10 years owning this lodge known of a fire like that in this area.”

She and other villagers struggle to comprehend how it could spread so fast.

Emma Klock, who works at Tongariro Crossing Lodge, also spent the day dealing with the changing plans of tourists.

“We have a lot of guests who want to do the crossing, but currently its impossible. They are little bit sad and disappointed.”

Like many locals she saw the blaze grow on Saturday evening.

“It was like a little fire and finally it grew a lot and a lot. We saw a lot of helicopters and aircraft. The siren rang lots of times.”

She’s returning in a few days to her home in France and hoped to walk the crossing one last time, but it wasn’t to be.

Tourists change plans

The village on Sunday was busy with people deciding their next moves.

Kaspar, Christian and Andreas, from Denmark, went up Mt Ruapehu before the access road was closed.

They were to have walked the Tongariro Crossing, but described the awe-inspiring sight of seeing the flames.

A group of four from Taiwan, David Chen, Judy Ho, Jerry Cheng and Jessica Lee, also had to adjust their plans.

Their tour guide took them on an alternative walk to the crossing, which they said was beautiful, so they weren’t too disappointed.

Connor de Bruyn, from Wellington, was on a guided walk up Mt Ruapehu yesterday morning, but the group had to avoid the summit and turn around early. The gondola was also suddenly closed yesterday.

He said a lot of the land was sacred to local iwi, so they’d feel a cultural loss.

Many State Highway 4 motorists were stopping to take photos or look at the plumes of smoke rising next to Mt Ruapehu – including Megan from Raetihi.

“It’s looking like it’s dispersed a bit more now,” she said yesterday afternoon, while sipping a coffee and looking towards the blaze.

“It was actually quite condensed when we were looking at it from Raetihi. Here, it’s looking like it’s quite spread out.”

‘What the heck can go wrong next?’

Businesses along the road have a front-row vantage point – but it’s not one they relish.

“Pretty much we can see the aerial fight that’s on and big clouds of smoke that look like an eruption,” said Jason Thompson, duty manager at Schnapps bar. There, the usually spectacular views of the plateau’s three cones have largely disappeared behind the fire.

He said locals were keeping a close eye on developments. “We could do without a big fire around here.”

Charm Thai food truck owner Nithian Barnett agreed.

She saw fire trucks rush past on Saturday and then noticed the smoke growing steadily bigger.

“I hope they’re going to stop the fire by [today] and let’s pray the rain’s coming and it’s going to be gone.”

Eivins Ski and Board rental owner Marie Lynghaug said as a former restaurant owner she was thinking of volunteering to make food for the firefighters if the blaze continued.

“You just wonder what the heck can go wrong next?

“This is truly devastating. It’s a world heritage national park. The tourists are only just coming back after Covid.

“As much as there are other things to do, it’s the Tongariro Crossing that is the key for people to come to the district.”

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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand

Source: Radio New Zealand

A staff member has been injured at a Youth Justice facility this evening.

Police were called to a report of an assault at a Kiwi Tamaki Road address in Auckland about 7.30pm.

Auckland’s Korowai Manaaki Youth Justice residence is on the same road.

An RNZ reporter at the scene saw an ambulance at the facility, before driving away.

Oranga Tamariki acting deputy chief executive youth justice services and residential care Neil Beales confirmed a staff member had suffered minor injuries.

He said the incident was appropriately managed, and the site was secure.

Beales said Oranga Tamariki tokk all incidents seriously and that steps had been taken to ensure the safety of everyone in the residence.

– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand

Source: Radio New Zealand

A staff member has been injured at a Youth Justice facility this evening.

Police were called to a report of an assault at a Kiwi Tamaki Road address in Auckland about 7.30pm.

Auckland’s Korowai Manaaki Youth Justice residence is on the same road.

An RNZ reporter at the scene saw an ambulance at the facility, before driving away.

Oranga Tamariki acting deputy chief executive youth justice services and residential care Neil Beales confirmed a staff member had suffered minor injuries.

He said the incident was appropriately managed, and the site was secure.

Beales said Oranga Tamariki tokk all incidents seriously and that steps had been taken to ensure the safety of everyone in the residence.

– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand

Source: Radio New Zealand

Warning: This story deals with the sexual abuse of children and may be distressing for some readers.

A brother and sister say they both lived with guilt, shame and confusion following sexual abuse they suffered at the hands of an older relative when they were children, more than four decades ago.

Only as adults had they realised they’d both been victims, as each had thought they were the only one.

They were targeted by Noel Raymond Candy, who is 65, but was just 18 at the time.

The siblings were staying with extended family, where he too was staying.

Candy continues to deny the historical offending for which a jury found him guilty on three charges of indecency with a girl under 12, and one of indecent assault on a man or boy.

In the Tauranga District Court this week, he was sentenced to nine-and-a-half months’ home detention.

A ‘little secret’ kept for years

Judge Melinda Mason noted the difficulty with the sentencing process in this case was the lapse of time.

“The tariffs in these charges have changed and even the nature of the charges have changed since then to what you would be facing today, both in the type of charge and in the actual penalties,” she said.

The Crown and defence had difficulty finding comparative cases from around the time, with the offending happening sometime in the late 1970s or early 1980s.

Over the course of one or two nights, Candy sexually assaulted both children, then primary-aged, by going into their room, and removing blankets and clothes to indecently touch them. One of the children was made to perform a sexual act on him.

One told him to “go away” and that she was worried her relatives would hear.

He told her to be quiet and it would be OK, and said it would be their “little secret”.

The other also told him to go away, but was told by Candy to “shush”.

Both victims told the court the long-term effects on them had been profound, with both keeping it a secret well into their adult years.

The woman said she first confided in her daughter, because she wanted to protect her from Candy, whom they still saw at family functions. She’d had years of being “unable to articulate the experience”.

She remembered the night of the abuse, but it wasn’t until her teens that she understood what Candy had done to her.

Her “lack of confidence, feelings of shame, confusion and self-doubt” hindered her from disclosing it.

She thought her parents wouldn’t believe her, and became introverted, emotionally isolated and started making “poor relationship decisions”.

“I was angry, hurt and confused,” she said in her victim-impact statement, read in court.

Nine years after she’d first confided in her daughter, she learned her brother had also been a victim.

“We both agreed to report this to the police, based on the fears that there may be other victims,” she said.

Her brother also gave a victim-impact statement, speaking about the particular shame and guilt he’d felt as a male victim of sexual abuse.

“I remember feeling confused, scared and ashamed, even though I didn’t fully understand what had happened,” he said.

“I didn’t know how to tell anyone and I didn’t want to get in trouble, so I stayed silent. As I grew older and began to understand more about the world, I realised the full extent of what had happened… what had been done to me.”

By that time, the “damage had been done”.

He’d become angry, withdrawn and introverted, which often manifested in fights or aggressive behaviour.

He carried “deep shame, embarrassment and fear about being judged, especially as a male victim of abuse”, he said.

“I worried people would see me as weak, different or damaged. Unfortunately, that’s how I saw myself.”

He’d struggled with his mental health and had been overly protective of his own children, fearing they too would be abused.

He had witnessed his sister’s behaviour when she was a teen, and was acting out and struggling in ways that caused “conflict and pain” in their family.

“At the time, I didn’t understand why she was behaving that way, but I later learned that she too had been abused by the same [man].”

Both siblings were confused by an offer of restorative justice that followed a trial, where Candy expressed no remorse nor took responsibility.

They had no interest in an emotional-harm repayment of $2500.

Dealing with ‘crimes as they occurred back then’

In terms of sentencing, the Crown said the aggravating factors included the breach of trust and the age of the children at the time.

The Crown said the degree of indecency was high, given that it involved skin-on-skin contact with the victims’ genitalia.

“The Crown highlighted that in modern-day times, your offending would have been defined as sexual violation by unlawful sexual connection, which has far greater seriousness in terms of the maximum penalties,” the judge said.

“Of course, we’re not dealing with that. We’re dealing with the crimes as they occurred back then.”

Defence lawyer Bill Nabney highlighted Candy’s young age at the time and that he’d not offended since then.

Several of Candy’s family members provided letters of support, describing him as a trustworthy family man.

Judge Mason adopted a starting point of 18 months’ imprisonment for the first victim, based on cases from the time that she felt were comparable. She uplifted this by six months for the second victim.

She applied a 10 percent discount for Candy’s age at the time and a further 10 percent for his personal factors, including his good character.

This resulted in an end sentence of 19 months’ imprisonment, which she agreed to commute to one of nine-and-a-half months’ home detention.

The judge said, were it not for the significant lapse in time since the offending, she wouldn’t have granted this.

“Given that you haven’t been in trouble for 47 years, home detention will be imposed,” she said.

Candy will be subject to six months’ post-detention conditions, but won’t be registered on the Child Sex Offenders Register.

Where to get help:

If it is an emergency and you feel like you or someone else is at risk, call 111.

– This story originally appeared in the New Zealand Herald.

– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand

Source: Radio New Zealand

Former world-rated boxing champion, turned debt collector Sean Sullivan has landed himself in hot water for unlawfully trying to repossess goods.

Once ranked the No.7 welterweight in the world, Sullivan fell from grace in 2009, when he became the first person sent to prison for ripping off Housing New Zealand.

In 2007, Sullivan was acquitted, alongside another debt collector, of kidnapping a car dealer and trying to extort $21,700 from him.

Now, the Private Security Personnel Licensing Authority has reprimanded and fined him for using a false authority in an attempt to repossess more than $11,000, including furniture and stock worth nearly $10,000.

According to a recently released decision, Sullivan was hired by a woman to repossess the items from her former business partner as repayment of a debt she claimed she was owed.

The business had failed, and both the woman and her former business partner had lost their initial investments.

The woman had abandoned the business 12 months before contacting Sullivan, while her former business partner continued working in the business, selling remaining stock to pay the rent and other debts.

Sullivan gave the woman an authority-to-act form, which had been given to him by a finance company, and asked her to complete it, including what she wanted him to seize.

The document claimed the former business partner owed her $11,336, which included $9836 in furniture and stock, and repossession charges of $1500.

Sullivan presented the former business partner with the form as justification for repossessing the goods.

The form stated Sullivan Recoveries Ltd was authorised to do so on behalf of a finance company.

False authority

Sullivan crossed out the name of the finance company when he was at the former business partner’s address, saying he didn’t want to delay the job or incur additional costs for his client.

The form contained a false contract number and contract date.

Apart from agreeing that Sullivan could take the furniture that the woman brought into the business, the former business partner didn’t acknowledge any debt.

In addition, there was no credit contract or other agreement authorising repossession, and no court order to enforce.

Sullivan didn’t have any documents to show that money was owed by the former partner.

The former partner said Sullivan was guilty of misconduct by attempting to carry out an unlawful repossession of goods from her business. Sullivan claimed he had the proper authority to act.

Sullivan acted unlawfully

According to the decision, Sullivan continued to say he was justified in taking action, “as the debt was real and acknowledged” by the woman.

Sullivan told the authority he accepted he made procedural errors and used the wrong processes, because he misunderstood the legal processes he should have followed.

Private Security Personnel Licensing Authority chairwoman Trish McConnell said Sullivan had acted unlawfully in attempting to use a false authority to act to attempt to repossess goods.

She found him guilty of misconduct and gross negligence.

Sullivan had held an individual licence in the class of repossession agent since 2019 and worked as a repossession agent for much longer than that, she said.

“He should know the documentation required and the processes that need to be followed before he is entitled to repossess goods.

“I do not accept Mr Sullivan’s submission that he only made a mistake as to process, as he failed to understand the proper legal processes required.

“Even though Mr Sullivan may have genuinely believed his client was entitled to recover what she claimed to be her share in the business, he had no basis for this belief, other than what his client told him.”

Sullivan’s attempt to repossess goods without any lawful authority was, at the very least, willful or reckless, she said.

McConnell was not convinced the incident was a “one-off” and that Sullivan had not made similar mistakes in the past.

He had been asked several times to explain the authorities and documentation required to lawfully undertake a repossession or collect debts, and had responded that he was not a lawyer, and could not or would not provide any further answer, she said.

“It is concerning that someone who has run a repossession business for as long as Mr Sullivan has such a poor knowledge of the documentation and processes required to lawfully conduct his business.”

A rap over the knuckles

Sullivan was formally reprimanded and fined $500. Conditions were attached to his individual licence.

He was told to only accept work from registered financial providers and prohibited from working for private clients.

Sullivan was told to engage an experienced, licensed repossession agent who is a member of a reputable security association to review his business practices and provide him with training on the due diligence required when receiving instructions from clients, and the documentation and processes required for lawfully carrying out repossessions.

Sullivan was ordered to file a letter or report from the licensed repossession , confirming he had completed the necessary training within 12 months of the decision.

Sullivan told NZME he respected the decision.

– This story originally appeared in the New Zealand Herald.

– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand

Source: Radio New Zealand

The police commissioner has begun a process to revoke medals awarded to disgraced former Deputy Police Commissioner Jevon McSkimming.

McSkimming pleaded guilty to three charges of possessing child sexual exploitation and bestiality material in the Wellington District Court on Thursday. He will be sentenced next month.

In a memo to staff on Sunday – seen by RNZ – Police Commissioner Richard Chambers said he had “initiated steps to revoke the Long Service and Good Conduct medals of former Deputy Commissioner Jevon McSkimming”.

“I will also be requesting he return any item of police uniform he may still be in possession of.”

Chambers said current and former police colleagues, who had received certificates or awards signed by McSkimming, had reached out to him.

“Some staff have asked for the certificate or award to be re-issued in my name and signature, which I am happy to do.”

Any staff who wanted him to re-issue documentation could email Chambers directly.

Following McSkimming’s guilty plea, Chambers released a statement saying McSkimming’s conduct was “disgraceful and it is right he has been held to account for it”.

“The outcome shows all police, no matter their rank, are accountable to the laws that apply to us all.

“Mr McSkimming’s behaviour was not only criminal, but goes against the core values of police. I will not allow this to tarnish my staff, who are as appalled by this as I am.

“This shameful episode has done their dedication an immense disservice.”

From the moment he was advised of the circumstances, Chambers said he had taken it “seriously and acted on it”.

“As soon as I was made aware of the nature of the material found, I raised it with the Minister of Police as a conduct matter to allow him to consider Mr McSkimming’s position at the time as a statutory deputy commissioner.

“Mr McSkimming subsequently resigned from police.”

He added that his conduct “has no place in police”.

Chambers also ordered a rapid review of the controls and security of police devices.

“I moved quickly to remedy the gaps it identified, and ordered auditing and monitoring of staff use of police devices.

“We will investigate any cases of staff found to have accessed inappropriate or objectionable material, and will take action where conduct falls short of standard and expectations.”

Chambers ended his statement acknowledging the “the outstanding work of more than 15,000 police staff across the country who work day and night to help keep our country safe”.

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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand

Source: Radio New Zealand

New Zealand could benefit from Australia building a wall of military drones to keep China at bay.

A defence analyst said Ukraine provides the inspiration for a much larger wall, possibly of three layers of air drones and sea drones too.

Dr Malcolm Davis has written about this for the Australian Strategic Policy Institute (ASPI), saying the Australian platform may work better, if allies co-operated.

“To essentially add in a New Zealand layer to an Australian drone wall, that could be very useful,” he said.

“If, for example, China were to get a forward military presence into the southwest Pacific, I think that it would be highly useful to have a New Zealand component to this.

“That would effectively plug-and-play into the Australian system, and we’d be working together to ensure the defence of both countries.”

The layer with the furthest aerial reach – out to 2800km off the coast – could comprise a Boeing drone called the ‘Ghost Bat’.

At well over A$10 million each, the Bat is costly compared to many of Ukraine’s shoestring creations, but 10 times cheaper than an F-35 fighter jet, with sophisticated sensors.

Behind them, he proposes a second layer of much cheaper interceptor drones.

“They would operate over the Arafura and Timor seas, intercepting any threats that evaded the Bats.

“This would be the mainstay of the drone wall and would need cheaper expendable platforms, performing a single role, but acquired in large numbers.”

Canberra has put A$1b into developing the Ghost Bat within Australia, creating hundreds of jobs. It has been testing how the drone can operate in concert with jet fighters.

“There’d be no reason why New Zealand couldn’t invest in the Ghost Bat programme itself and reconstitute its fixed-wing air combat capabilities,” said Davis. “It wouldn’t have to necessarily buy sort of fighters like the F-35 and so forth.”

Deterring China

The drone wall could also “plug-and-play” into an American system, he said.

The US Navy had a plan called ‘Replicator’ to field thousands of drones in the Indo-Pacific. It hit problems, and Reuters reported last month that the Pentagon was trying anew to quickly introduce hundreds of American-made drone models and a training programme.

“We’d be wanting to acquire capabilities that could work with the United States, and indeed with other partners and allies, so Japan, for example,” Davis said. “We’d be wanting, for example, to have common data links, command and control, that sort of thing.”

Rather than provoking China, a drone wall would be an effective deterrence.

“No-one’s talking about sinking Chinese ships in international waters in peacetime, but we do actually have to have the ability to maintain a watch on what they’re doing, to maintain surveillance and, in wartime, take action to defend our interests.

“I think that this is where greater investment in autonomous systems in general and concepts like a drone wall really come to the fore.”

Drones second to space only

New Zealand’s new defence industrial strategy puts drones second, behind space, among the top three strategic industrial base priorities.

The Defence Force and Space Agency are under orders to come up with a “base statement” on drones and counterdrone systems.

Alongside that, the NZDF has put out a tender to set up a technology accelerator like the Australians have, to identify, develop, test and integrate new and emerging technologies into defence capabilities.

“Many promising innovations outside the traditional defence sector are being missed from consideration, and the proposed accelerator programme could provide structured and agile pathways to engage with such innovations,” its tender said.

Davis said drones would not be in place of conventional systems – Australia plans to buy Japan’s Mogami-class frigates and NZ is moving closer to following suit, after meetings in Malaysia this week – but in addition to them.

“What we’re talking about is complementing those ships at sea and those fighter aircraft with drones.

“You would have forces both on the sea, under the sea and in the air, and you’d probably have support from satellites in orbit.”

Janes has reported that “Japan and New Zealand have begun government-to-government talks on the improved Mogami-class frigate and how it might fulfil the Royal New Zealand Navy’s (RNZN’s) requirements”.

Davis said the Ukrainians were using much smaller, lower-cost drones.

“The idea would still be to have low cost of acquisition in comparison to crewed platforms, so that we could get large numbers of these drones.

“The whole point of this is to generate mass.”

It was early days and he did not think the partner militaries were talking this way yet.

“We’re just starting to find our legs with this.

“If we can develop these systems so that we can produce them in high volume at low cost and do so rapidly, then you have a magic combination there that allows the Australians and New Zealanders, the Americans and so forth to dramatically boost combat capability in the face of that threat from China, and I think we’re just starting to get started on that process.”

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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand