Further Swann assets found

When convicted fraudster Michael Swann was given a long prison sentence, allowance was made for his help in recovering property bought with proceeds of his $16.9 million fraud against his former employer, the Otago District Health Board.

But on the day Swann was sentenced - March 11 last year - police found a $150,000 boat which had been hidden in a farm shed at Haast, about the time of Swann's trial a few months earlier.

Rinker Captiva was being towed at Hawea by a man who said an associate of Swann had offered him $250 to collect the boat from Haast and bring it back to Dunedin.

The finding of Rinker Captiva was "sheer coincidence", Crown counsel Marie Grills told Justice Graham Panckhurst during a Proceeds of Crime hearing yesterday.

She cited various examples of Swann, rather than helping authorities find proceeds of the offending, actively trying to conceal them.

The most recent was last month, when police found a 1998 Mercedes Benz, previously unknown in the inquiry, hidden at the address of one of Swann's associates.

In an affidavit dated March 28 this year, Swann had said, "I can definitely say that there is nothing by way of hidden or missing property".

Mrs Grills said it had been established Swann bought the vehicle from Armstrong Prestige for $19,200 in November 2008, just before his trial started.

He paid $14,200 in cash and was to pay the remaining $5000 over the next month, but never did.

Serious Fraud Office investigations, which brought Swann and co-offender Kerry Harford to trial, established Swann spent just under $8 million of his $15 million share of the proceeds on cars and boats, $3.7 million on real estate, a little over $1 million on food, liquor and household items, with $1.1 million being taken in cash.

His assets, as detailed in a High Court document, comprised 12 properties, 21 vehicles, five vessels and five containers of vehicle parts.

At yesterday's hearing, the Crown sought $15.116 million, less property valued at around $4.4 million which is to be forfeited, and minus already-resolved third-party claims.