Cash stashed under fridge-freezer 'was legal'

A man has told a Nelson District Court jury that he used a safe hidden under a fridge-freezer to stash thousands of dollars in cash from work he did.

Graham Donald Sturgeon, 47, a wood merchant, of Orinoco, 55km northwest of Nelson, is accused of drug dealing and money laundering.

Sturgeon told the court yesterday that while he declared most of his income for tax purposes, he did not declare all of it, and was often paid in cash.

Sturgeon has denied three charges of cultivating cannabis, two of selling cannabis, a charge of possessing cannabis for sale, two charges of possessing offensive weapons, and six charges of money laundering, involving a total of $62,658.

Continuing his evidence before a jury of four men and eight women yesterday, Sturgeon said he had always worked hard, and had never had any financial need to resort to criminal activity.

Sturgeon denied a suggestion that he laundered money through his firewood business, but admitted that while most of his income was declared for tax purposes, not all of it was.

He said he was a carpenter as well as a firewood and timber merchant, and people often paid him cash for wood he supplied or jobs he did.

Sturgeon said he could make up to $1000 cash a day delivering wood, and put the money in a floor safe under his fridge-freezer at home.

Sturgeon told his lawyer, Donald Stevens, QC, that $20,000 police found in his freezer in February 2003 was money he had accumulated over a year from timber and firewood sales, and building jobs done for cash. It was not from illegal sources.

He said he originally had the money on his kitchen table, ready to take to the bank, but when a plainclothes police officer turned up at his home, he grabbed the money and threw it into the freezer, as he did not have time to put it back in the safe.

Sturgeon disagreed with a Crown suggestion that he spent more money than he earned, and explained how he had acquired various assets.

He said he paid cash from legitimate earnings towards the purchase of some items, such as his four-wheel-drive and two tractors, and other people had contributed money toward items such as a bulldozer.

Sturgeon said he shared a $30,600 Harley-Davidson motorcycle with a friend who had put money towards it, while the balance was paid by his nephew, in return for cutting rights to trees on Sturgeon's farm.

Explaining why he had a loaded semi-automatic rifle beside his bed in February 2003, Sturgeon said he kept it there in case a man named Ray Syder, who used to work at his farm and had allegedly threatened him, returned to the property.

Sturgeon said he banned Mr Syder from his property in January 2003 after his dog was "bashed" and seriously injured.

He later found a note which read "DED" in his letterbox, which he took as a death threat from Mr Syder and told the police about.

Because of the note and what had happened to his dog, and the fact he felt the police could not protect him, he left the firearm beside his bed, he said.

- nzpa