Crims face deportation back to NZ

UP TO 1000 criminals – including killers, sex offenders, drug dealers and outlaw bikies – will be dumped on New Zealand’s doorstep in the next five years.

The Government is scrambling to keep New Zealanders safe after recent law changes in Australia opened the way for the deportation of Kiwis who have committed crimes across the ditch.

Many of the criminals have tenuous links to New Zealand after living in Australia for years.

Among those expected to be deported are dozens of gang members, sparking concerns new outlaw motorcycle clubs could be established here alongside rivals including the Bandidos and the Rebels.

The Government says it is working quickly to improve trans-Tasman information sharing. New legislation is being drafted that will allow for supervision of criminals who are sent home.

Under changes to the Australian Migration Act in December, Australian officials have the power to cancel the visas of suspected or convicted criminals, particularly those sentenced to 12 months’ jail or more, or found guilty of sex offences.

According to police, 119 people have been deported to New Zealand from Australia so far this year – more than four times the number sent home for the same period 12 months earlier.

In the four years to June 30, New Zealand sent 14 people in the other direction.

Figures provided by the Australian Department of Immigration and Border Protection reveal that since the law change, 372 New Zealanders’ visas have been cancelled. Nearly half of them are sitting in immigration centres in Australia awaiting deportation.

Police sources say up to 1000 criminals could be sent back to New Zealand in the next five years.

Reports across the Tasman suggest dozens of bikies have been nominated as possible candidates for deportation. Many of them are believed to be New Zealand citizens who are aligned with gangs like the Comancheros.

A founding member of the Rebels in Tasmania, Kiwi-born Aaron Joe Thomas Graham, was arrested by immigration officers in Hobart in June and is among those awaiting deportation. He has a string of convictions for violent assaults.

Detective Superintendent Virginia Le Bas, national manager of organised crime, said police were aware of several gang members among those returning to New Zealand.

Some of them were from groups that did not exist in New Zealand, Le Bas said.

‘‘There’s the risk that they will come back here and set up a chapter [of the gang] and establish within this country.’’

Le Bas said it was key that police had access to information about those who were being deported.

‘‘If we don’t know who they are we can’t be monitoring them and that’s what we want to be doing,’’ she said.

There has been a push to improve monitoring of criminals deported from Australia to New Zealand since the murder of Christchurch schoolgirl Jade Bayliss in November 2011.

The 13-year-old was strangled in her home by her mother’s exboyfriend Jeremy McLaughlin – a man who had spent time in jail for the killing of a teenager in Australia before he was deported in 2001.

Convicted murderer Michael Heron was deported from Australia late last year and is understood to be living in Christchurch.

Heron, 43, was jailed in Australia in 1996 after stabbing a man to death in a bar fight. He was sentenced to a minimum of 14 years’ jail and had extra terms added for repeated acts of violence in prison.

Authorities warned he could kill again.