A High Court judge in New Zealand has ordered the police to repay $22,100 (US$12,400) despite finding that, “by a slender margin,” it was most probably “tainted property”—the proceeds of drug dealing. He did so because to allow the Crown to retain it would cause the man “undue hardship,” and the law permits the courts to exercise discretion in such cases.
When police searched a Toyota, registered to the long-term partner of a man called Wii Taunoa, at a Napier property after its occupants had waved weapons while chasing another vehicle, they found a zip-lock bag containing what they believed was methamphetamine. The search took place in Taunoa’s driveway.
