TINNY HOUSE COSTS FATHER FOUR YEARS

A 52-year-old Porirua man, who claims he ran a tinny house which 150
people visited daily to provide a future for his adult children, was
today jailed for four years and three months.

Police estimate Michael Te Wika Anaru sold a cannabis "tinny" worth
$20 every four minutes for one year, earning him $3000 a day, $21,000
a week or just over $1 million a year.

He used a cardboard sign to indicate when his Porirua east house
wasopen and sold the tinnies out of a plastic drink bottle at the
front door wearing costumes to disguise himself. Anaru travelled
monthly to the East Coast to stock up on cannabis which he stashed in
the basement of another house.

When police executed a search warrant in December they found two bags
with more than 1kg of marijuana worth $7000 and an Enfield.303 rifle
in the basement property. Anaru had about $275,000 in a bank account
at the time.

He was sentenced in the High Court at Wellington today after
admitting three charges of possessing cannabis for supply, two of
selling cannabis and a charge of unlawfully possessing a firearm.

His lawyer Chris Nicholls said Anaru was given the firearm by an
associate after being "stood over" by the Mongrel Mob.

Other than a short time working as a truck driver, he had little
employment through his life.

Anaru had hoped his cannabis operation would help his son, who had
three children, and his daughter who had five children.

"He was doing the only thing he was any good at to try and set them
up." Anaru suffered from poor health and there was a severe risk he
would die in jail because of his health, he said.

"Porirua East is a pretty depressing place. The area where he ran his
tinny house from is bleak place, there's a lot of despair.

"It's only because depression in the area is so high that people want
to get off their faces."

However, Crown prosecutor Tom Gilbert said Porirua East maybe a bleak
place, "but Anaru did nothing by his actions to enhance it".

He showed no remorse and had little motivation to address the issues
which led to his offending, he said.

Justice Alan Mackenzie said while out of prison on bail in January,
police visited Anaru and searched the house after smelling cannabis.
They found nine tinnies behind the hot water cylinder which Anaru
admitted he intended to sell.

Anaru had 19 previous cannabis convictions, 13 of which he was
imprisoned for, the judge said.