A mother who got mixed up in her gang associate partner’s methamphetamine dealing operation has been given a reprieve from deportation and the possible break-up of her young family.
Elizabeth Bolea, an Australian national with a resident-class visa, pleaded guilty to a charge of participating in an organised criminal group after a drug run in 2020.
Bolea was in a relationship with Rhakim Mataia, an associate of the Comanchero Motorcycle Club. She was 22 years old and pregnant with their daughter.
Under Mataia’s direction, she hired a rental car from Auckland and with him and another offender drove to Christchurch.
They did not know that police covertly searched the car while they were crossing Cook Strait on a ferry and found a large amount of methamphetamine – at least 500g – in the boot.
In Christchurch the next day, the two men went to a gang pad to supply the methamphetamine.
Bolea pleaded guilty to participating in an organised criminal group and the High Court declined her request for a discharge without conviction. She was sentenced to four months of home detention.
The conviction made her liable for deportation as an Australian citizen. Because Mataia is a 501 deportee he would be barred from returning to Australia with her.
This raised the prospect that Bolea and her daughter would have to go to Australia without the child’s father, splitting up the family.
Bolea took her conviction to the Court of Appeal, arguing the likelihood of her deportation and the separation of her family was a consequence “out of all proportion” to the gravity of her offence.
The Court of Appeal dismissed her case, saying Bolea’s dilemma “can validly be regarded as a consequence of the offending and not the conviction”.
Bolea then appealed to the Supreme Court.
The Supreme Court justices unanimously allowed her appeal and quashed her conviction for participating in an organised criminal group, an offence that meets the criteria for deportation as it has a maximum penalty of more than two years in prison.
The justices said if Bolea was not granted a discharge without conviction, a deportation liability notice would “almost certainly” be issued by Immigration New Zealand.
“We add that there may be situations where mere exposure to the procedures relating to deportation may be a disproportionate consequence [of a conviction],” the Supreme Court justices said.
“That type of case aside, a ‘real and appreciable’ risk of deportation will suffice.”
However, despite the court allowing the appeal and quashing the conviction, Bolea’s case has not been fully discharged.
The Supreme Court sent the application for a discharge without conviction back to the High Court, on the basis the application would benefit from further evidence.
By Ric Stevens
Open Justice reporter
