Whistleblowers ruined

Crafars' workers made bankrupts

KELLY HODEL/ Waikato Times

RUINED: Sharon and Ivan Lammas were the sharemilkers who exposed the effluent problems on the Crafar brothers' Collins Rd farm. They were this week bankrupted by the Inland Revenue Department amid continued fallout from the court case against the Crafars.

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The sharemilkers who blew the whistle on the failing effluent system on a farm near Hamilton owned by the Crafar brothers have been financially ruined as a result of going into business with the dairy moguls.

In an exclusive interview with the Waikato Times, Sharon and Ivan Lammas, both 38, revealed they had this week been bankrupted by the Inland Revenue Department in the fallout from the latest case of "dirty dairying" involving Frank and Allan Crafar.

The brothers, who own several farms across the North Island, were last week convicted on 34 charges relating to discharges and effluent problems at a Collins Rd property they owned.

It was Mr Lammas who alerted Environment Waikato to the problems on the property, just a month after he and his wife had signed up to run it.

Mr and Mrs Lammas, who moved on to the Collins Rd property in June 2007 on a standard sharemilking contract, said they were forced to pay farm workers rather than their IRD bill because the farm they ran for the brothers was not producing the results and profits they thought it would.

Mr Lammas said he was aware the Crafars "stretched the boundaries" of dairy farming before he signed on, but had hoped to profit from the sharemilking deal. Instead, the couple battled to keep on top of the problems and it eventually cost them dearly.

The couple left the property with a six-figure debt, and said they had been effectively forced to "start their lives again" after walking off the Crafar brothers' farm in February 2008, with four months still to run on their contract.

Mrs Lammas said the problems on the farm had a huge emotional and mental impact on the couple, who never intended to "get the Crafars into trouble".

While he accepted he should have been more thorough in his investigation of the property before signing up, Mr Lammas said he encountered a series of problems on the farm within weeks of taking it over.

Not only did the poorly maintained effluent system fail to cope, an effluent pond was not sealed, there was a lack of water to dilute effluent and Mr Lammas a 16-year veteran of the dairy industry said the herd size of 1900 cows was too big for the 400-hectare property. Rain, the drought of 2007-2008, lack of grass, low production rates, and animal health issues all worsened the problems on the farm.

"It was a big downward spiral," Mr Lammas said of his time on the Collins Rd property.

When he attended meetings for farm managers who oversaw the Crafars' various properties, Mr Lammas said he was always the first to ask for help and pleaded with the Crafars to upgrade the effluent system, which was at full capacity.

He made the issues with the property "quite clear" on monthly farm reports. While the brothers did address the problems on the Collins Rd farm to some extent, Mr Lammas said those issues were quickly pushed into the background and never fully dealt with.

Neighbours were aware of the issues, which had been the subject of Environment Waikato investigations in the past.

Efforts to gain comment from the Crafars this morning were unsuccessful.

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