Drug-ring leader forfeits home

DAVID HALLETT/The Press

SUBSTANTIAL: this drug dealer's house fetched $845,000.

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The leader of a Christchurch cannabis dealing operation has lost his home.

George Alan Reese, 55, ran his cannabis wholesaling operation from a substantial home in Southshore until he was arrested under the police Operation Ghost in 2005.

Reese is in jail and was forced to sell his Rocking Horse Road home to avoid a mortgagee sale.

Just before Christmas, Reese learned that his share of the proceeds will either be forfeited under the Proceeds of Crime Act or be subject to claims by his former wife and his lawyers.

Reese is serving a four-year jail term for conspiracy to sell cannabis and possessing it for sale.

He was described as the hub of the commercial cannabis dealing operation that was subject to three months of covert surveillance and electronic eavesdropping by a team of Christchurch detectives, ending in September 2005 with the seizure of about 400 cannabis plants, 3kg of dried cannabis and thousands of dollars in cash mostly in $20 notes.

Four lesser members of the group were convicted and sentenced to penalties ranging from jail to community work.

In the High Court in Christchurch last week, Justice Panckhurst said it was not disputed that the Rocking Horse Road house was "tainted property" because Reese had used it as a base to sell cannabis.

When police raids on that house and others were made to end Operation Ghost on September 8, 2005, about 140g of cannabis and $700 in small notes was found there.

A restraining order was placed on the house -- which was on two titles, with an adjoining vacant section -- while the Crown considered making a forfeiture order under the Proceeds of Crime Act.

After Reese's arrest, he was unable to continue paying the mortgage.

A mortgagee sale was averted when the Solicitor-General consented to it being sold on cond-ition the proceeds from the sale be retained by the authorities. The property was sold for $845,000, which, after the mortgage was paid, left $115,000.

Reese opposed the forfeiture application and was partly successful, with the judge ruling that $60,000 of the sale ought to be forfeited. Forfeiting the entire sum would have been disproportionate, he ruled.

Applications were also made to the court by Reese's former wife, Maureen Reese, who lived at the home intermittently, for nearly $13,000 in mortgage payments she made while her former husband was in jail and for child-support payments to cover his time in jail.

She had originally been charged as part of the conspiracy, but was acquitted at trial.

Another claim was made by George Reese's lawyers for their fees.

The judge ruled that Reese's former wife was effectively an unsecured creditor to her husband and that the lawyers would be able to make a normal claim for their fees. Both have the ability to claim against the $55,000 that George Reese was allowed to keep.