Ben Timmins – who died this week in an unexplained Waitārere Beach shooting in which his wife and her two sons were critically injured – had an extensive history before the courts that spanned drug and firearm convictions, as well as several employment disputes.
Yet his sister Rachael O’Grady has insisted many of her 60-year-old brother’s legal battles arose because he was, paradoxically, a “stickler for the rules” around other people’s safety, despite harbouring a disregard for his own wellbeing.
The Herald has obtained court documents that show seven different litigations initiated by Timmins since 2006. These documents are often appeals of other historical convictions, such as possession of a firearm without a licence in 1996.
Timmins also initiated several Employment Relations Authority (ERA) cases against his employers.
One was against Asure New Zealand Limited, where he was a meat inspector, due to the company’s categorisation of him as a casual worker rather than a fulltime permanent employee.
Another ERA dispute was with labour hire company Allied Workforce Limited and CPB Contractors Pty Limited, where he lost his employment on the Transmission Gully motorway project after time off following an injury and an ACC claim.
O’Grady said these multiple disputes relate to a fixation Timmins had on fighting injustice.
“There’s a nuance to Ben but when it comes to others’ safety, others’ protection, others’ lives, 100% he’s making sure that ball rolls safely. He definitely has not been as safe about his own life,” O’Grady said.
“He’s always felt if you’re going to do something, then do it right. And yes, it may have not seemed that way in some of his personal decisions and choices.”
O’Grady said her brother would raise issues he was concerned about in his workplace and butt heads with authority.
“No one likes the squeaky wheel. Instead of fixing it, get rid of it.
“He’s not an antagonist ... He’s one of these ones that if a police officer was arresting someone that had done a hit-and-run and was trying to escape, Ben would help the cops try and catch the guy.
“Also Ben would be the first one to say to a cop: ‘Hey, you’ve just been a bit rough with that person. Be a bit more gentle’.”
Timmins’ fastidiousness extended to his time as a security contractor in Iraq, after serving in the Royal New Zealand Infantry Regiment from 1987-95, O’Grady said.
“I remember a couple of instances where Ben, in his career over there at some of the camps in Baghdad, would tell his subordinates or his colleagues: ‘Hey, you’ve just let a truck through the gate. Have you checked it? No, go and stop that truck and f***ing check it’.”
The most recent legal document relating to Timmins was an October 2024 appeal hearing over a 2019 conviction for cultivation of cannabis, unlawful possession of ammunition and theft.
Among several illegal items found at Timmins’ Whanganui property were 58 cannabis plants and 204 rounds of ammunition.
But O’Grady is adamant her brother was not caught up in underworld activity, and his drug charges were likely to raise money for others he felt the need to provide for.
“I will reiterate to you, Ben has never been involved in gangs ... he’s not gang-associated, he’s not that person.
“I’m unsure why he did the cannabis thing. Maybe that was to help family, to make sure they were looked after and had money. I don’t know because we never discussed it. I knew about it and I asked him and he said ‘it doesn’t matter’.”
She also dismissed the idea Timmins was a sovereign citizen type who resented the Government and wanted to live off the grid.
“I don’t believe Ben was a ‘f*** the cops’ type of person because he knew that their job was to protect, serve, care. Their job was to uphold the rules, much like what he tried to do.”
The family are yet to say their goodbyes to Timmins, after he was cremated in private on Saturday morning. His body was returned to Whanganui on Friday night and no family were present for the cremation.
“No one got a chance to say goodbye to him because of the intense media interest and because of the people that come out and say what a f***ing monster he was.”
O’Grady indicated there would be a service of some sort for Timmins at a later date.
She also had to identify her brother for police. When asked where he was shot, O’Grady indicated she was able to identify him facially without being “distressed”.
Timmins was due in court on the day of his death, January 14, over two family harm-related incidents just days earlier on January 9.
O’Grady spent that last weekend with her brother working through court papers and options in Whanganui.
She told the Herald she understood a condition of his bail following his arrest was to not go to the Waitārere Beach Rd property at which the shooting eventually occurred.
Manawatū Area Commander Inspector Ross Grantham said police were called to the property around 7.15pm on January 13, after someone reported discovering what they believed to be a firearm on the property. Police located and seized a dismantled firearm, firearms parts and ammunition. Nobody residing at the property was the holder of a firearms licence, Grantham said.
However, just five hours later, emergency services responded to a reported shooting at the property.
“The call we received shortly after midnight was what we call a ‘non-speech emergency call’ – that is, the caller called 111 but did not speak. However, we believe the call was made by the child at the address,” police said.
Aside from Timmins, who was killed, there was a woman, 46, and two young men, aged 17 and 21, who were critically injured from gunshots. The trio are still “fighting for their lives in hospital”, according to police.
A fifth person found at the property was an unharmed child, who O’Grady says is Timmins’ daughter with the 46-year-old woman. Timmins was not the father of the other two young men.
O’Grady said she has not seen her niece since the shooting.
Drug, ammunition and theft convictions
Timmins had his property searched on December 21, 2016, after an informant told police he had firearms there.
The 2024 ruling document of Timmins’ appeal over his 2019 conviction identifies that he had two prior convictions for dishonesty, one of which involved him supplying false details to a police officer in relation to a driving matter.
The search was conducted at 7.45am by the police’s Armed Offenders Squad, but no one was present at the property.
“At the rear of the property, police found a 21m2 shed that had been lined with reflective foil and fitted with growing lights and an irrigation system. As we have noted, 58 cannabis plants were found growing in the shed. A document was found in the shed which was computer-generated information about how to grow cannabis clones,” the appeal decision stated.
The officers also discovered that Timmins had “drilled through the perspex cover” of the power metre on the property and inserted a pin into the metre, stopping the rotating dial from recording that any power was being used at the property.
In one bedroom of the property, police also found 204 rounds of ammunition, three firearm magazines, a silencer and a rifle bolt.
A relative of Timmins had owned the property since 2005, and in 2015 the property was transferred to Timmins as executor of the relative’s estate after their death. On November 18, 2015, the property was transferred to Timmins in his personal capacity. But on that same day, the property was transferred to a woman, understood to be the 46-year-old who was shot and critically injured on January 14.
Following a trial before Judge Robert Spear and a jury in 2019, Timmins was convicted in relation to three charges: cultivation of cannabis, unlawful possession of ammunition and theft. He was sentenced to 11 months’ home detention and ordered to pay reparation.
Timmins’ 2024 appeal of those convictions was allowed in part. The conviction for unlawful possession of ammunition was quashed after a “miscarriage of justice arose through how the judge instructed the jury in relation to the Arms Act charge”.
Firearms charges
In July 2018, Timmins appealed a historical firearms conviction from 1996. The High Court could not find the file detailing this conviction but Timmins said it was for possession of a firearm without a licence.
The appeal decision says Timmins’ original legal issue concerned him not having the correct type of gun licence.
“He was initially appropriately licensed but in the early 1990s the law changed and a different form was needed. Mr Timmins applied but it seems, for reasons that are not clear, the new licence was not issued. Mr Timmins says he believed he was entitled to possess his firearms in the intervening period between surrendering his old licence and obtaining a new one.
“As I understand it, the ‘intervening period’ grew quite long since no new licence was issued. The old one was surrendered in May 1993 and police visited Mr Timmins’ house in June 1996. His firearms were taken and Mr Timmins charged. He was convicted, although detail of the court process is not provided.”
Timmins 2020 application to appeal of this conviction was not granted due to the length of time and there being “no realistic capacity in the system to test” Timmins’ allegations of entrapment.
ERAs
In 2001, Timmins took legal action against Asure New Zealand Limited, where he was employed as a meat inspector, over a disagreement as to the nature of his employment.
Timmins maintained that he was a permanent fulltime employee, while Asure claimed that he was employed only as a casual worker. This dispute was subject to mediation and a settlement agreement was entered into in December 2001. This agreement confirmed Timmins’ status as a permanent seasonal meat inspector during the bobby calf season and that he would also be offered work as a casual meat inspector.
A series of subsequent disputes continued into 2002, relating to Asure attempting to get Timmins to sign an employment agreement, which he declined. Eventually Asure “disengaged itself from its relationship with Mr Timmins, arranging for his meat inspector’s warrant to be cancelled and, in the end, formally dismissing him”.
Timmins also raised allegations that Asure had failed to comply with food safety regulations and that defective meat carcasses were being exported from New Zealand.
In 2006, Timmins made an ERA claim appealing a 2002 decision that dismissed claims he made over the alleged failure by Asure to comply with the settlement agreement, and personal grievances associated with events since the mediation conference.
In June 2016, Timmins was unable to work following a workplace injury and received ACC cover until late October 2016, when he was given medical clearance to return to work on Transmission Gully. But Timmins’ position with CPB Contractors had not been held for him and he was informed by labour hire company Allied Workforce Limited (AWL) that there was no available work at that time. Timmins informed AWL that he would be raising a personal grievance. He resigned in December 2016. Timmins claimed he was constructively dismissed by AWF and/or CPB.
In July 2018, Timmins applied to have legal claims he had brought before the ERA removed without determination. The ERA decision refused his application, saying Timmins had not provided any good reasons.
Tom Dillane is an Auckland-based journalist covering local government and crime as well as sports investigations. He joined the Herald in 2018 and is a duty editor and senior reporter.
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