CROWN TAKING TARANAKI FARMS FROM CANNABIS KING

The farms of Taranaki cannabis king Christopher Ross Jury are poised to go
under the hammer after he failed meet Wednesday's deadline to pay more than
$660,000 to the courts.

As a result, either one or both of his two Tikorangi properties, worth
about $1.9 million, can be sold to meet a $410,000 penalty under the
Proceeds of Crime Act 1991, and a $250,000 fine.

The sum is one of the largest in the country to be taken under the law.

Jury is serving a six-year sentence in New Plymouth Prison for growing and
selling cannabis, and money laundering.

The Court of Appeal reduced the initial fine of $400,000 and $100,000 costs
to a $250,000 fine.

In August last year, Jury had pleaded with the court not to confiscate the
properties because his father wished for them to be handed down from
generation to generation.

He was given seven months to find the money.

In a further decision released this week, the Court of Appeal refused to
further extend the time to pay the money.