NZ Engine

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

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

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

Source: Radio New Zealand

Two crashes – including one involving a police car on its way to the earlier smash – have closed SH2 River Road in Upper Hutt.

Police said motorists should expect delays in the area.

Emergency services were called to River Road, Clouston Park, between Fergusson Drive and Totara Park Road, about 5.50pm Sunday, after reports of a two-vehicle crash.

Police said moderate injuries were reported.

A police car driving to the crash “under urgent duty” was also involved in a three-vehicle crash on River Road, near Gibbons Street.

While no serious injuries were reported, the road was closed for a scene examination.

Diversions were in place.

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

Source: Radio New Zealand

State Highway One between Longbush and Kennington, near Invercargill, was closed and the power was out for 62 properties, after a truck hit a powerpole.

Emergency services were called to the crash at 2.30pm Sunday.

There were no reports of injuries and detours were in place.

NZTA said road users should expect delays in the area.

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

Source: Radio New Zealand

Health New Zealand says one new measles case has been found in Nelson with no links to others that have had the disease.

There have now been 18 confirmed cases in the outbreak of measles — 17 of them are no longer infectious.

The latest case was not linked to any previous cases, which may indicate undetected measles circulating in the community.

Health NZ said anyone who lived in Nelson or had been there between 1 -7 November should check the Health New Zealand locations-of-interest page over the next few days.

The agency anticipated more cases, as the outbreak continued.

“New Zealand continues to remain at high risk from measles.”

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