POLICE MAY APPEAL JUDGE'S RULING TO DISCHARGE AMERICAN BILLIONAIRE

WELLINGTON -- The office of the Police Commissioner has stepped into the
case of the billionaire who imported drugs.

It is expected to announce if it will appeal against the man's discharge
without conviction next week.

Assistant Police Commissioner Neville Trendle, the national police
prosecutions manager, confirmed he was reviewing the file and was awaiting
Judge David Harvey's sentencing notes which were not available until the
judge returned from holiday next week.

"I will be looking at the notes with the chief legal adviser to see where
we go from here."

The businessman was discharged without conviction by Judge Harvey in the
Otahuhu District Court after admitting three counts of importation,
including the class B drug hashish.

Mr Trendle said if police decided to appeal Judge Harvey's decision, the
file would be forwarded to the Solicitor-General at the Crown Law Office
for further advice. Any application to appeal had to be lodged within 14
days of the businessman's sentencing last Thursday.

The businessman's lawyer, Marie Dyhrberg, said she was confident of
defeating any possible appeal as there had been a lot of precedent
regarding the discharge without conviction under section 19 of the Criminal
Justice Act.

"And of course the fact that they didn't oppose it in the first place makes
it sort of rather difficult for them to do it now - in fact they said they
were not adverse to the making of the orders which goes further in simply
not opposing."

Meanwhile, the girlfriend of a French student convicted and fined for drug
importation by Judge Harvey a day after he discharged the businessman on
more serious charges, said customs had interviewed her in relation to her
boyfriend's actions.

Wellington-based Michelle Baracco, 19, on a working holiday in New Zealand,
said customs had decided to take no further action.

Ghislain Couston, 19, was arrested as he arrived at Auckland International
Airport on January 3 and charged with earlier attempting to send a 4g block
of hashish to Ms Baracco's address.

Couston, before he was deported on Tuesday, said he was naive in sending
the drugs but that it was unfair that a billionaire could walk free on
charges involving the importation of substantial quantity of the same drug.

A Spanish journalist in Auckland to cover the America's Cup has been
convicted and ordered out of New Zealand for possessing 7g of cannabis.

Jaime Rossello Portman was ordered to pay court costs and was not given
name suppression in the Auckland District Court last week.

He had 93g less cannabis than the American billionaire.