Court freezing order covers Skiffington’s interest in properties
The High Court order freezing assets of Lorraine Skiffington has been made pending the outcome of the Wellington Tenths Trust’s civil claim against her.
The trust wants up to $3.5 million, plus interest and costs, as a result of deals about 10 years ago over plans to develop trust land in central Wellington.
Skiffington was then personally and professionally close to the trust’s chairman, Sir Ngatata Love.
Love, 79, is serving two years and six months in jail for fraud relating to trust business.
Skiffington, 59, was originally charged too, but the charges against her were stopped because of her ill-health.
A judge in the High Court at Wellington was recently told Skiffington, who lives in Hamilton, is terminally ill.
Tenths Trust claims Skiffington received money that should have gone to the trust, and it has made a civil claim against her. She disputes she owes the money.
In the meantime, the High Court has agreed her half-share interest in four Hamilton properties and one in Martinborough, plus shares in two companies, be frozen.
The court also recently agreed a house in Plimmerton, north of Wellington, that Skiffington and Love bought, should be sold. The mortgage over the property was in arrears and the order was made to preserve its value, pending the outcome of a police claim under criminal proceeds recovery law.