Court orders sale of fraudster’s home
A heavily mortgaged $1.75m home shared by convicted fraudster Sir Ngatata Love and his former partner Lorraine Skiffington is to be sold after a sale order sought by police was upheld.
Police are now able to sell the house, in Plimmerton, under the Criminal Proceeds (Recovery) Act.
Love, 79, former head of the Maori landowning Wellington Tenths Trust, is currently serving a two-and-a-half-year jail sentence for obtaining by deception. His appeal against conviction and sentence was dismissed in June. arrears. The net proceeds of its sale are to be held in the control of an official assignee in an interestbearing trust account, Justice Clark ruled.
‘‘The question for my determination is whether, in the face of mounting mortgage arrears, a sale order is necessary to preserve the equity in the house. I have been persuaded that it is necessary.
‘‘Since the verdict and findings of the High Court, not impeached on appeal, the Plimmerton property is correctly viewed as tainted by the proceeds of crime.
‘‘The [police] commissioner has a proper interest in preservation of its value. The value is being eroded by the steadily increasing arrears. A sale order is the means by which to preserve value.’’
Proceeds from the sale are also to be used to pay off interest on the mortgage, which has not been paid since March.
The house was now tenanted and Skiffington was collecting the rent, but not paying interest on the Westpac mortgage.
She has argued the amounts owing had been manufactured by the bank, which had raised the mortgage payments without telling her – a claim denied by Westpac, which said there was no genuine dispute as to the amounts owing.
Westpac confirmed that, as of June this year, arrears had reached more than $95,000, plus accrued interest and costs, including legal costs.