Fake flower ‘signalled brothel was open’

A couple accused of running a brothel from a Tauranga rental and leaving out a plastic flower to show they were open for business have been fined for unlawful methamphetamine use.

Tenants Susan Forbes and Peter Fitzgerald denied they had run an unlicenced brothel at their Papamoa Beach rental during a recent Tenancy Tribunal appearance. And the tribunal adjudicator agreed, saying the allegations were based on conjecture.

However, the accusations led property owners Andrew and Rochelle Corney to suspect methamphetamine use at the rental.

The suspicions came to light in November when Forbes and Fitzgerald’s neighbour phoned Andrew Corney, saying they had seen a man smoking from a glass pipe in the unit’s upstairs bedroom.

Two separate neighbours told Corney they thought a brothel was operating from the unit because cars were calling late at night and two women were “meeting and greeting various men”.

“Mr Corney also says he was told a plastic flower was put out in the garden to indicate the premises were open for business,” the tribunal adjudicator said.

Meth testing found the unit had been significantly contaminated and, when Corney contacted Tenancy Services’ advisory team, they said the rental was probably uninhabitable.

Corney and Fitzgerald agreed to end the tenancy.

Fitzgerald was seen by neighbours doing “excessive cleaning” at the premises and washing down the walls with sugar soap.

Forbes and Fitzgerald denied running an unlicensed brothel. Fitzgerald said he had a foreign language student and her relative stay at the unit and “both had lots of visitors in and out of the premises”.

Forbes said her work with the New Zealand Prostitutes’ Collective supported “the health and safety of sex workers, but she denies any involvement with the two women who were staying at the premises”.

Fitzgerald said a boarder had stayed. He worked for a company that “carried out decontamination of meth houses and he may have carried traces onto the premises”.

The adjudicator said the methtesting results, neighbours’ observations, Fitzgerald’s use of other drugs and his installation of a security camera led him to believe meth had been unlawfully used at the rental.

He ordered Forbes and Fitzgerald to pay the Corneys $450 for unlawful use of the rental, almost $3000 to cover the cost of meth testing and $420 in unpaid rent.