Tauranga couple Luana and Hira Noble were both sentenced in the Tauranga District Court on November 8. Photo / Mead Norton
Tauranga couple Luana and Hira Noble were both sentenced in the Tauranga District Court on November 8. Photo / Mead Norton
The Tauranga "kingpin" of a synthetic cannabis supply ring caught laundering nearly $1 million from sales through his takeaway shop and other accounts has been jailed for more than two years.
Hira Noble, 65, who led the supply ring was sentenced in Tauranga District Court yesterday after earlier pleading guilty to a representative charge of money laundering.
He also earlier admitted representative charges of selling and/or supplying a non-approved psychoactive substance and possessing the drug for sale or supply.
His wife, Luana Noble, 47, who helped bank the proceeds from sales, earlier pleaded guilty to a representative charge of recklessly engaging in money laundering transactions.
She avoided a prison sentence after Judge Thomas Ingram accepted she was a willing accomplice but also "under her husband's thumb" during the offending.
The couple's charges stemmed from offending committed between November 2015 and April 2018, the Crown summary of facts revealed.
On March 15, 2018, police launched an investigation named Operation Fauna, which targeted a criminal syndicate led by Hira Noble, described as the "kingpin" by Judge Ingram.
Police say Hira Noble was the central figure in the supply network that spread from Auckland to Wellington.
Police established that the syndicate produced and supplied wholesale amounts of synthetic cannabis which was weighed and bagged for sale on the streets.
The cash proceeds were then laundered.
Both defendants owned D'Lish Hangis, which was a small takeaway restaurant and food business selling hāngi food and pies and in 2014 they formed D'Lish Limited.
Luana was the sole director of D'Lish Group Limited and D'Lish Finance Group Limited, and she incorporated those businesses in 2015. Hira Noble is no longer a director of D'Lish Limited.
The couple's financial records, 19 bank accounts either in their names or under their control, plus another man's accounts, were examined by a police forensic accountant.
The accountant found that between November 2015 and April 2018, the Nobles had access to unidentified sums of cash of no less than $940,000, the summary said.
The Crown says the extra cash was not from sales of hāngi food but the proceeds of sales of psychoactive substances laundered through their business and personal accounts.
Financial records also found that between March 15 and April 24, 2018, Hira Noble, with another male defendant, sold non-approved psychoactive products on 33 occasions.
Hira Noble in court. Photo / Mead Norton
He also sold them on three occasions by himself.
During the same period, Hira Noble and a male co-offender supplied about 3.6kg or $45,000 worth to "synnie" houses, which in turn were onsold to members of the public.
He also bought 5kg of damiana - a plant material used as a base to produce synthetic cannabis - from a local business and delivered it to another defendant.
When police searched the Nobles' property on April 24, 2018, officers found plastic bags containing plant material and two barrels buried near the property.
Inside the barrels was a total of 10.881kg of synthetic cannabis materials, which included 801 packets of product ready-made for sale.
Others in the syndicate were previously dealt with by the court.
Hira Noble's lawyer, Bill Nabney, handed a copy of a recent report on the potential harm from the use of this type of psychoactive substance to Judge Ingram.
Nabney also argued the sentence starting point should be three and a half years with minimal uplift for his client's offending while on a previous home detention sentence.
He submitted that a home detention sentence was not an unrealistic sentence for his client given Hira Noble's cultural background report.
Nabney said the report outlined a number of "unfortunate issues" which had relevance in triggering a lifestyle of his client engaging in criminal offending.
He urged Judge Ingram to also take into account that the defendant and his wife had also been involved in a number of community initiatives, including providing food through their legitimate business to various community organisations.
Luana Noble's lawyer, Viv Winiata, also urged Judge Ingram to give his client the opportunity to serve home detention despite the Crown calling for a prison sentence.
Luana Noble in court. Photo / Mead Norton
Winiata said it was clear from her cultural background report that Luana Noble had a "pretty harrowing" time in terms of her upbringing and her childhood.
Luana Noble had taken significant rehabilitation steps to address some of the factors which had led her to offending, including attending regular counselling sessions, he said.
Winiata said this was not a case of wilful blindness but recklessness and his client had made significant strides to get her life back on the right track.
Crown prosecutor Richard Jenson argued that a four-year prison sentence starting point was justified and home detention was "completely unrealistic" given the gravity of the couple's offending.
Jenson said one-quarter of the sum laundered was committed while the Nobles were still serving sentences for fisheries offending imposed in 2017.
He said apart from discounts for guilty pleas and some modest other credits, the contents of the Nobles' cultural background reports were not of sufficient weight to warrant further discounts.
In May 2017, the Nobles were both sentenced to home detention after pleading guilty to a charge of obtaining a benefit by illegally receiving fish, the court heard.
Their company D'Lish Limited was fined $30,000 for illegally receiving 116kg of black-market minced pāua.
Hira Noble was also previously sentenced for delivering illegally-caught snapper.
Hira Noble's Hummer truck, motorcycle and Gate Pā home were earlier seized by the police under the Criminal Proceeds Recovery Act. He has challenged the seizures.
Judge Ingram said he was satisfied the Crown's sentence starting point of four years prison was justified given the sums involved in the money laundering charges.
Another aggravating factor was that one-quarter of the $940,000 money laundering was committed while the Nobles were both still subject to court sentences, he said.
"The cold reality is the sums of money laundered were enormous."
Judge Ingram said Luana Noble was a willing accomplice to her husband's offending but he also accepted that did not necessarily mean she had a free choice.
The judge said it was clear from documents and reports that the couple had the skills to successfully run a legitimate business but chose to offend in this way.
Judge Ingram also said he accepted this type of psychoactive substance was not as lethal as Class A drugs such as methamphetamine.
"But the cold reality is a lot of people have died from consuming psychoactive substances. And I accept we are dealing with a significant social issue and a pretty lethal threat to some people who use it."
The judge sentenced Hira Noble to two years and nine months' prison after allowing him discounts for his guilty pleas and some mitigating factors in his background.
He sentenced Luana Noble to nine months' home detention, saying he accepted she had been "under her husband's thumb" in the course of her offending.
