DRUG GROWER'S FARM PROFITS GO TO CROWN

A man who ran New Zealand's biggest cannabis-growing operation is
giving up more than $250,000 profit from the sale of his Te Puke farm
to the Crown.

Stephen Warren Daley, 49, was jailed for five years after a huge
hydroponic cannabis factory, capable of an estimated $4 million a year
turnover, was discovered near Kaikoura. His sentence was increased to
seven years on appeal.

In the High Court in Christchurch yesterday, Daley, through lawyer
Peter Egden, consented to the Solicitor General's application for a
pecuniary penalty order pursuant to the Proceeds of Crime Act.

A total of $256,110, plus interest, is held by the Official Assignee
in Christchurch, after the sale of Daley's Te Puke farm.

That amount, less lawyers' fees, will be paid by the Official Assignee
to the Crown. Crown solicitor Brent Stanaway said it could have been
established that the amount reflected what Daley earned from cannabis
dealing.

There was also an unexplained expenditure of about $300,000 over a
one-year period.

As well, the net proceeds of the sale of Daley's Honda
four-wheel-drive motor vehicle, $474.16, was paid to the Crown, and a
1982 Isuzu truck was forfeited.

Co-offender Michael Craig Conn, 24, who was jailed for three years,
was ordered to forfeit a 1984 Toyota Utility. Orders for forfeiture of
a 1990 Toyota Landcruiser and a 1998 Ducati motorcycle were dismissed.

Daley had a lease to buy deal on a $650,000 farm near Kaikoura on
which he had built a 30m by 15m barn capable of holding 8000 plants. A
tourist deer-shooting venture was used as a cover. He had paid only a
deposit on the Kaikoura farm.