I'm clean now, pledges 'human crime wave'

SUNDAY NEWS

IT'S DIFFERENT NOW: From an early age Patricia Toia looked after herself. Now, she has support. ''I'm not used to having so much whanau around.''

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The woman dubbed a human crime wave vows she is clean of drugs and has kept out of trouble with the law since being kicked out of Australia.

In an exclusive interview with The Dominion Post, her first since arriving in Auckland after being deported in September, Patricia Toia has spoken about her troubled past and her hopes for the future. She is looking forward to a family reunion near Kaikohe in April, for an unveiling ceremony at her parents' graves.

Auckland-born Toia, 31, was deported from Australia after losing her final appeal, ending a five-year legal battle to stay there. A week later, she was banned from an Auckland hotel after staff said she intimidated other guests, often seemed stoned and racked up a phone bill of $860 before disappearing.

The Dominion Post found her in South Auckland, where she agreed to an interview at the home of her niece, Charlene Toia. She said Australian Immigration made her "look bad" by letting her make toll calls from the hotel then refusing to pay.

She made the calls to her Sydney-based husband Hamish McClelland, but insists she was authorised to do so by Australian Immigration, which agreed to pay for her to stay in the hotel for 20 days after her deportation. An Australian Immigration spokesman said this week: "That's not the way we saw it."

Toia lived in Australia from the age of one. From the age of 15 she racked up a 30-page criminal record. She has been jailed 30 times, committed a further 56 offences behind bars and has been banned from driving in Australia until 2060.

Australia first tried to deport her in 2004, when it cancelled her visa on the grounds that she failed a character test. Her own lawyer called her a "human crime wave".

She was escorted to Auckland on a private jet because commercial airlines refused to take her. She says she was terrified because she had never been on a plane before.

Now drawing a New Zealand unemployment benefit, she says she is looking for work, has been clean of drugs for three months and is spending time with family in a country she knew nothing about before her deportation. She is intending to learn Maori.

Charlene Toia, 21, says her aunt is making a fresh start. "I love my aunty. It's been ages since we've seen her. [When she was on drugs] she was an idiot. The drugs and stuff have stopped and she's not into any more trouble."

- © Fairfax NZ News