(nzherald.co.nz) The Criminal Proceeds (Recovery) Amendment Bill passed its third reading in the House on Tuesday with the support of Labour, National and the Act Party.
It gave and expanded upon the police’s powers to target assets held by associates of gang members - a recent practice intended to circumvent the Criminal Proceeds (Recovery) Act 2009.
“Under the new provisions, if it’s shown that an associate of an organised criminal group couldn’t have funded their assets legitimately, they will be required to prove to the court how they came to possess them, or face having them frozen,” Justice Minister Kiri Allan said.
“We’re going after gang leaders and the facilitators of organised crime and hitting them where it hurts – their pockets – by taking their properties, cars, bikes and bling.”
Allan referenced her home region of the East Coast when explaining the prevalence of the practice, which had developed as more sophisticated criminals came to New Zealand in the last six years, some through Australia’s 501 deportation policy.
“I’m thinking of, in particular, criminal activity in my own backyard in the East Coast where they’re using young people who aren’t fully-fledged members of gangs, so they’re not on the known gang membership list, to be able to stash goods to [then] be able to on-sell them.”
There was a cumulative threshold of $30,000, meaning the assets or monies needed to total at least $30,000 to be eligible under the legislation.
Assets included items like motorbikes. Allan said models frequented by gang members could be worth as much as $40,000 to $50,000.
Allan confirmed children below the age of 16 were included in the group of people she knew were being used by more established gang members to hide their assets.
She stressed that there were safeguards within the legislation to ensure legally obtained assets were not targeted, saying the court had an “interest of justice” test to check whether the property was obtained legally. The Independent Police Conduct Authority would also have a role to play in ensuring police actions were justified.
“There has to be sufficient evidence to show that you were intentionally doing this.”
Other powers within the legislation included criminals based overseas who have assets in New Zealand potentially losing those assets unless they provided proof within two months that they obtained their property legally, and making KiwiSaver funds subject to civil forfeiture orders which eliminated the potential for criminals to hide illegal funds in their KiwiSaver.
Allan estimated the legislation would lead to an increase of $25m per year in monies and assets being seized from gang members. Since 2019, police had restrained more than $156m in assets.
While he supported the bill, National justice spokesman Paul Goldsmith said the move confused the Government’s approach to crime, which he often characterised as soft given its priority to reduce the prison population for example.
“People are confused, rightly, about where this Government is coming from when it comes to law and order and when it comes to crime.”
The Green Party and the Māori Party both opposed the bill.
Greens justice spokeswoman Golriz Ghahraman raised concerns about how some of the new powers weren’t clearly defined and their application wouldn’t be fully known until they were tested in the court.
“It seems to be a lot about making politicians look tough on crime.”
