Court rejects bid to get Crafars back on land

Photo / Christine Cornege

A former South Taranaki mayoral candidate has lost a legal fight to have the former head of New Zealand's largest dairy operation return to his land.

Huntly woman Elizabeth (Liz) Lambert was seeking an injunction stopping KordaMentha from kicking the Crafar family off their property, because she wanted to buy the 16 farms for herself and keep Allan Crafar and his family as tenants.

It's understood she was offering just $1 for each property in the Crafar portfolio in a deal which would have put the Crafars in breach of the agreement they had with the receivers to vacate the properties by August 31.

But this afternoon the High Court in Tauranga dismissed her injunction application and ordered her to pay KordaMentha's court costs saying she had no arguable case.

The Crafar empire, once New Zealand's biggest private dairy operation, was placed in receivership almost two years ago owing more than $200 million to banks and PGG Wrightson.

Shanghai's Pengxin International Group agreed to spend $200m buying and upgrading the 16 farms in January, after a bid by Natural Dairy was rejected by the Government on the Overseas Investment Office's recommendation.

Pengxin's bid is subject to Overseas Investment Office approval.

Sir Michael Fay has also declared his interest in buying nine of the properties - if the Pengxin bid falls through.

KordaMentha lawyer Bruce Stewart said Lambert, who stood for South Taranaki District mayoralty last year, claimed she struck a deal with the Crafar family to purchase the farms on August 27.