Aongatete family group appear in Tauranga District Court

Four Aongatete residents faced a raft of Resource Management Act and Building Act charges in the Environment Court at Tauranga on May 15.

Four family members accused of illegally installing several buildings on their Aongatete property and other offences refused to accept they are subject to New Zealand common law.

Bhadra Reid, 72, Bianca Reid, 41, Dhruva Das Reid, 41, and Jason Alexander Reid, 73, collectively faced 25 representative charges relating to alleged breaches of the Resource Management Act (RMA) and the Building Act in the Environment Court at Tauranga yesterday.

The RMA charges laid by Bay of Plenty Regional Council and the Building Act charges by Western Bay of Plenty District Council alleged the offences were committed between October 19, 2019 and February 7, 2023 at or near the defendants’ Work Rd address.

The four defendants are each charged with carrying out building work without a building consent and using a rural zone property for more than one dwelling.

They are also accused of contravening abatement notices by unlawfully carrying out a home enterprise in a building with a gross floor area of more than 120 square metres and using more than one dwelling at the property.

Dhurva Reid is also charged with obstructing or hindering a Western Bay of Plenty District Council enforcement officer in the execution of his powers and failing to provide the officer his name.

Jason Reid is also accused of obstructing or hindering the same council enforcement officer, while he and Bhadra Reid also allegedly failed to comply with a notice to fix a building issued in August 2018.

The defendants, who were all self-represented, appeared before Judge David Kirkpatrick and Judge Sheena Tepania.

Several times, Dhruva Reid told Judge Kirkpatrick, who sought pleas from him, that he would not do so until he had full disclosure and objected to the judge calling him the defendant.

“We don’t take the title defendant. We are simply men and women. We’re the principals and note that is what we want to be called.”

Dhruva said he believed these charges were a “bad intention to enslave men and women” and there was no evidence presented of “any injured party or any damages” despite the allegations.

“Our plea to the charges is ‘non est factum’,” he repeated several times - it’s an old Latin term or doctrine meaning ‘not his or her deed’ historically used as an attempt to avoid the consequences of court or civil proceedings.

Jason Reid and Bianca Reid gave similar responses.

Bhadra Reid, who read a prepared statement to the judges, said she was a sovereign national of Aotearoa He Whakaputanga 1835 and that the 1835 Declaration of Independence of New Zealand ‘He Whakaputunga o te Rangatiratanga’ was the founding document that governed New Zealand.

She also said that the heads of the tribes who had signed the 1835 NZ Declaration of Independence – He Whakaputunga o te Rangatiratanga - had not ceded sovereignty to the New Zealand Government and New Zealand Parliament. Ms Reid added that unless the Western Bay of Plenty District Council can provide proof of jurisdiction it has none and she does not recognise its jurisdiction and pleads neither guilty nor not guilty. The judge directed pleas of not guilty to be entered in respect of Ms Reid.

Three of the defendants were able to elect trial by jury, and when pressed, Dhruva Reid said he did so “under duress”, particularly as he and the other accused had not received full disclosure from the prosecutors.

The regional council’s lawyer Victoria Brewer told the court a copy of the initial disclosure was delivered to the defendants on February 7 and two sets of charges and a draft summary of facts were also provided on April 6, but the documents were returned unopened.

Judge Kirkpatrick told the defendants that despite their views, he had authority under his District Court and Environment Court warrants to pursue this matter.

And the two councils had the authority under the Local Government Act, Resource Management Act and Building Act to lay these charges when they believed an offence/s had been committed and the defendants also had the right to defend them, he said.

Judge Kirkpatrick entered not guilty pleas on the defendants’ behalf and remanded them to appear for a case review hearing on July 24.

He declined to release the draft summary of facts to the Bay of Plenty Times.

Clarification

The statement attributed to Bhadra Reid in this article has been corrected and updated.

A statement in the article that said the defendants did not recognise the jurisdiction of the Western Bay of Plenty District Council, the regional council or the court was incorrect and has been removed.