$75,000 PENALTY PERMITS DRUG DEALER TO KEEP HOME

A High Court judge ordered a jailed drug dealer to pay a $75,000 penalty
for using his home to grow drugs, but has told him he can hold onto the
beautiful waterside Bay of Islands property.

James Stuart Fisher used the 4ha Kerikeri property, known as Blackrocks
Retreat, to grow cannabis in two water tanks hidden underground.

The Solicitor-General had sought a forfeiture order under the Proceeds of
Crime legislation, but Justice Rhys Harrison ruled that would be too harsh.

In his written judgment the judge observed: "As this case illustrates, the
consequences of a forfeiture order can be draconian."

Instead, the judge made a pecuniary penalty order in the sum of $75,000 -
the amount he said that Fisher had benefited from his cannabis-growing.

Blackrocks Retreat, with unimpeded views over the Hauparua Inlet, has an
outdated valuation of $525,000 but is believed to be worth about $750,000.

A fortnight ago, Justice Harrison sent Fisher to jail for two years and
nine months for cultivating and selling cannabis.

Fisher's wife, Mary Fisher, was given a term of supervision for allowing
the property to be used for growing cannabis.

Fisher, a commercial fisherman, had only a small loan on the property.

The Crown argued that forfeiture of Fisher's half share of the property,
worth about $250,000, was a "proportionate statutory response" to his
offending.

But the judge said that the couple, particularly the wife, would suffer
undue hardship.

Forfeiture of Fisher's interest in the property would be grossly
disproportionate to the gravity of his offending, especially considering he
had already been punished with imprisonment.

Forfeiture would take away the product of a lifetime's work and would leave
him destitute.

The property would have to be sold and Mary Fisher would lose the
matrimonial home.