Gangster's girl says sorry to family

Rania Niazi says she is no longer the girlfriend of Abe Wharewaka but remains a friend. Picture / Dean Purcell

She was the Remuera girl with the privileged upbringing who became the partner of a Black Power mobster 40 years her senior.

Rania Niazi had the best education money could buy, attending Diocesan School for Girls and Senior College, yet she became embroiled in organised crime, drugs, prostitution and gambling.

She was gang boss Abraham "Abe" Wharewaka's personal assistant and his lover. Wharewaka is 62, Niazi is 23.

She was part of an unusual line-up when sentences were delivered in the High Court last month. With her in the dock were Wharewaka, president and founder of the Black Power Sindi chapter, his son and fellow patched gang member Abraham jnr, 38, and brother Timothy Jake Wharewaka, 52, the vice-president.

The police and the judge speak glowingly of Niazi's family.

This week, her parents told how the youngest of their three children went off the rails. In a separate interview Rania Niazi said she wanted it known she was no longer Abe Wharewaka's girlfriend, though she says they will be friends forever.

She spoke of her regret about the impact on her family and apologised "for insulting their intelligence, lying to them [and] putting them through it".

They knew nothing until police arrived at the family home following her arrest on cannabis and methamphetamine charges and a count of participating in an organised criminal group.

She had led her parents to believe she worked for a company selling electrical and building goods when she was running the Black Power-linked Aquarius Massage Parlour.

They knew nothing, either, of her relationship with Wharewaka, who is four years older than her father, Mohsen Niazi, 58.

The relationship was revealed in court, where it became clear that they shared a bedroom in which packets of Viagra were found.

Drugs, guns, cash and utensils for manufacturing methamphetamine were discovered in other raids. There was evidence, too, that Niazi bought ingredients for making the drug.

Niazi's parents saw Wharewaka for the first time in court. "He looked like her grandfather, not even her father," Mr Niazi says. "I could not believe she was with a man who could be her grandfather.

"I don't blame him but I think a person of his age should not take advantage of someone her age, whether the girl is willing or not. It is a principle."

Mr Niazi says he feels frustrated more than desperate. "I don't know what to do. I have no solution in my hand. I know her potential, her abilities. She is not stupid, she is not ugly. We tried to instil the right principles in her. She has no excuses."

Mr Niazi believes she was spoiled. "Part of the problem is with us as parents," he said. "We gave her a car when she was 16 or 17, money, attention. We allowed her to stay out late at night."

They were afraid to apply tough love for fear she might rebel and, when they did, he suspects she found another sugar daddy in Wharewaka.

Rania Niazi told the Herald she fell in love with Wharewaka and they became lovers during a "business trip" to Thailand to arrange prostitutes for the massage parlour.

Age was irrelevant, she said; she fell in love with the person.

The Niazis are Egyptian and emigrated a decade ago to New Zealand from the United Arab Emirates, where Mr Niazi worked as a mechanical engineer in the aviation sector.

All three siblings went to private schools. The others have tertiary qualifications and successful careers, but Rania struggled academically.

Her parents believe she was distracted by the party life and say she was attracted to the wrong crowd.

They have no knowledge of the claim Rania made to the Herald that she suffers from "global amnesia", affecting her ability to concentrate. She dropped out of a business diploma course.

Her father wonders whether she was trying to prove she could succeed without qualifications by attempting to get rich through the business opportunities her association with Wharewaka opened.

Police said the drug operation Wharewaka controlled turned over from $1 million to $4 million a year.

She was sentenced to 14 months - the judge commenting she received "greater mercy than would ordinarily be appropriate" - and is unlikely to return to jail, having served seven months on remand.

She told the Herald she is determined to turn her life around, is attending drug and gambling counselling, and hopes to achieve her dream of owning her own secondhand clothes shop.

"I'd like my Dad to be the one to cut the ribbon when I open it so he can see that I have done it."