A couple is fighting the seizure of $1.7 million worth of property linked to cannabis cultivation

Photo: Eric Limon/1234RF

• Michael John Heron and Hayley Lewis are fighting to stop the Crown from seizing their two properties worth $1.7 million.
• Police raided Heron’s property in 2020, shut down a cannabis farm and seized $153,000 in cash.
• The couple plan to appeal the Supreme Court order on multiple grounds, including the future impact it will have on their young daughter.

A couple say they will fight to stop the Crown from taking ownership of two properties worth $1.7 million after one of them was caught growing cannabis for the sake of their daughter, who now “has her future lost”.

Police raided one of Michael John Heron’s properties in North Canterbury in September 2020, shutting down a “commercial scale” hydroponic cannabis farm and seizing more than $153,000 in cash.

Now police have stepped in to seize that property in Fernside in the Waimakariri district, and another property in Waikuku that Heron and his partner Hayley Lewis own as an investment. Together, the two properties have a municipal assessment totaling $1.7 million.

Police say both pieces of real estate were “tainted” by Heron’s illegal activities, which a forensic accountant said had earned him $1.28 million between 2013 and 2020.

They recently obtained a High Court order seeing the couple lose both properties – forfeited under the Criminal Proceed (Recovery) Act 2009.

The court order allows the couple to keep $147,000 that Lewis, who had no criminal charges and no criminal record, had contributed to the mortgage and maintenance of the property from her legitimate full-time job.

But ownership of the properties themselves will now be transferred to the Crown.

The Criminal Proceeds (Recovery) Act is often used against gangs and organized crime groups, separating criminals from the assets they build through illegal activities.

It is common for forfeiture orders to be obtained without resistance from the people they target.

But Heron and Lewis opposed the forfeiture order at a hearing in February and say they will now take their case to the Court of Appeal in an attempt to overturn it.

Their lawyers say that the appeal is being prepared on “several grounds”.

“We are losing everything we own,” Heron said in response to the forfeiture order issued by Judge Lisa Preston this month.

Lewis said they were appealing to their three-year-old daughter, “who has lost her future because of this decision.”

Heron admitted growing cannabis in 2021 and served 12 months of house arrest for his growing business.

He then used his skills to start a legitimate business, setting up a “microgreens” growing facility that provided edible vegetable sprouts using methods similar to his former cannabis business.

331 cannabis plants were found during a raid

When Heron was raided in 2020, officers found 331 cannabis plants in four different stages of cultivation in four grow rooms or tents.

The failure occurred about a month before the 2020 national referendum on whether to legalize recreational cannabis. The referendum was narrowly defeated and a bill for the legalization and control of cannabis failed to get off the ground.

When he was first arrested, Heron claimed he had only undertaken one successful grow to supply cannabis oil “for medicinal purposes”, pending a change in the law that would allow this.

On the day of the search, Lewis told police she “knew something was going on, but not to what extent,” according to court documents.

However, police said Heron had been using four times the daily average electricity consumption to power his grow rooms for years.

Since June 2016, he has consumed more than 100 kWh (units) per day. Over a four-month period in the spring and summer of 2015, his energy bill was $3,483.

Police said Heron had set up a five-bay garage next to his home to accommodate commercial hydroponic cannabis cultivation.

The equipment found included heat pumps and air conditioners, water and nutrient supply systems and a carbon dioxide pump.

“Cash and electronic money derived from Mr. Heron’s criminal activities were regularly deposited into the couple’s joint bank account and used to pay the mortgages,” the High Court order said.

In the walk-in closet of the couple’s bedroom, police found $153,860 – a total of 3,238 banknotes neatly bundled in $10,000 packets – in two safes on a shelf.

Heron acknowledged that the money came from illegal activities, but denied that his property was “tainted” within the meaning of the Criminal Proceeds (Recovery) Act.

Heron and Lewis will remain at the Fernside estate while their appeal is prepared, with Heron running the microgreens operations from the growing facilities.

If they have to leave, they can take the hydroponic equipment with them.

“In that sense, the forfeiture will be mitigated because the equipment remains available to continue what I believe is a rehabilitative operation and step,” Judge Preston said.

-This story originally appeared in the New Zealand herald.