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A West Auckland lawnmowing contractor claims he has been wrongfully accused of vandalising Te Pāti Māori billboards by the party’s president.
The Facebook post shared by John Tamihere, which has since been deleted 24 hours after initially posted, included pictures of Steve Howley standing next tohis work car along with a message to his followers asking them to identify him as “the vandal”.
The widely shared post has stirred up hundreds of accusations towards Howley, including branding him a racist.
Howley says the accusations are “laughable”, but the risk to his livelihood and his family’s wellbeing is not.
Tamihere says he welcomed Howley speaking out, but has not backtracked on the accusations, saying the matter is now with police.
This photo of lawn mower Steve Howley was posted by Te Pāti Māori president John Tamihere on Facebook.
The now-deleted post showed Howley standing next to his car texting, parked near the defaced billboard. He asked his followers to track down Howley..
“Can you please help us with identifying the person to help with a police investigation. If you can identify this person, their car, their company please message Oriini Kaipara mō Tāmaki Makaurau.
“Our thanks to the vigilant bystanders who were able to capture this footage.”
Howley said he has a sign in the same Glen Eden location promoting his business where Te Pāti Māori candidate Oriini Kaipara has a political billboard, promoting herself for the upcoming Tāmaki Makaurau byelection.
“My sign got tagged, so last week I went up with a bucket and a rag to try to clean the tag off,” Howley said.
“I didn’t see if any other signs had been tagged as I was only worried about mine.”
West Auckland lawn mowing contractor Steve Howley claims he has been wrongfully accused of vandalising billboards.
That appears to be when Howley was photographed.
Howley said the post was only deleted after he spoke to Tamihere on the phone this morning.
The single dad said Tamihere told him he would delete the post, which he did, but claims he did not offer an apology and refused to make a follow-up post backing down on the accusations.
However, after the post was shared 135 times and amassed nearly 200 comments, Howley thinks the damage is already done.
Howley said he has received “vile messages” towards not only himself but also his children.
He was only worried about earning an honest living for his family as a contractor.
Lawn mowing contractor Steve Howley says he was cleaning up the tagging on his own sign when he was wrongfully accused of tagging a Te Pāti Māori billboard.
People were posting photos of his children in the comments of Tamihere’s post.
As of 9.30am, 24 hours after the initial post, it had been shared to various pages across the country - and even to international pages.
Howley is extremely anxious about not only the effect this would have on his family but also on his business.
“I can lose money because of this ... I could lose everything. This is nuts.”
The Glen Eden RSA member said he has already made a police complaint about the accusations and is consulting with a lawyer.
