Michael Swann

Police have identified more than 50 assets connected to convicted fraudster Michael Swann, with more outstanding assets likely.

Convicted fraudster Michael Swann is likely to stay a free man, despite more than $250,000 of assets and cash being recovered from him yesterday.

Michael Swann allegedly paid $160,000 for a Rolls Royce found stashed in a container, but following its discovery told detectives ''it wasn't anything to do with me'', court documents show.

A luxury car concealed in a container has been seized, but Dunedin police say it is too early to confirm it belongs to convicted fraudster Michael Swann.

Fraudster Michael Swann was released from prison on parole yesterday, but his whereabouts remained unknown last night.

Police have confirmed a Rolls-Royce found stashed in a container is linked to convicted fraudster Michael Swann, who paid a ''substantial fee'' for the rare vehicle.

Michael Swann has left prison today a free man, albeit one with a $6 million pecuniary order.

Convicted fraudster Michael Swann was told at a parole hearing yesterday ''there was light at the end of the tunnel''.

Convicted fraudster Michael Swann will continue to face a multimillion-dollar penalty order on his release from prison, police confirmed yesterday.

The cash-strapped Southern District Health Board would have to spend ''precious funding'' on legal fees because of Michael Swann's continuing refusal to co-operate, the board's parole submission says.

Community safety is the most important consideration for the New Zealand Parole Board when it makes a parole decision.

The Southern District Health Board failed to file a submission before convicted fraudster Michael Swann faced the New Zealand Parole Board last month.

The anger in Dunedin and Otago is palpable.

A letter threatening legal action if convicted fraudster Michael Swann was not given a favourable parole outcome is ''outrageous'', and could harm his chance of an early release, a criminologist warns.

Convicted fraudster Michael Swann is appearing before the New Zealand Parole Board this week, four years after he was imprisoned for defrauding the Otago District Health Board of almost $17 million.

Three years ago last month, Michael Swann was sentenced in the High Court, in Dunedin, to nine and a-half years' jail for defrauding the Otago District Health Board of $16,902,000. Swann's sentence might have been up to a year longer if it had not been for his remorse and attempts to make good. But, as Mark Price reports, those still looking for the missing money say despite the discount in his sentence, they have received no help whatsoever from Michael Swann.

Convicted fraudster Michael Swann's former home Ferntree Lodge is back on the market at a reduced price following a failed settlement between the Crown and a South Island buyer.