Ex-wife set me up, says accused

A Rotorua man caught with $17,000 worth of methamphetamine claimed his former wife planted it at his home so he would go to prison.

However the High Court at Rotorua has heard that his wife could not have planted drugs at his home as she was heavily pregnant and not living in Rotorua at the time the drugs were found.

Peter David Flavell is on trial in the High Court.

He has pleading not guilty to possession of methamphetamine for supply, possession of cannabis for supply, illegal possession of a semi-automatic military-style rifle and five charges of receiving stolen property.

A jury of 10 women and two men heard yesterday from Crown prosecutor Amanda Gordon that Rotorua police searched Flavell's Tania Cres home on April 12, 2006.

They found a backpack containing drugs, drug paraphernalia, 17 grams of methamphetamine and a wallet with his identification inside, Ms Gordon said.

They also found a number of "point bags" used for packaging methamphetamine for sale, scales bearing traces of the drug and glass pipes used for smoking the Class A drug, she said.

Nearly $4000 in cash, mainly in $20 bills, was also in the backpack, the court heard. In a locked car belonging to Flavell, police found a plastic bag containing 27 grams of cannabis bud, Ms Gordon said. Two lap-top computers, a television set and a camera were also found, Ms Gordon said.

Behind a garage police found a luggage trailer valued at $7000 which had been stolen from Auckland in October 2005.

In a locked cabinet inside Flavell's home was an illegal Chinese SKS semi-automatic rifle, she said.

Ms Gordon said Flavell, who has a firearms licence, told police he believed he was allowed to have the rifle.

He said he had shown it to police and they had altered it so it would no longer be an illegal weapon.

"The police don't fix guns," Ms Gordon told the jury.

Police say the 40-year-old also had a sophisticated video surveillance system, hooked up to two television sets, so he could see who was coming and going from his property.

Asked about the drugs, Flavell claimed he had been set up by his former wife.

However, Ms Gordon told the court that could not have been the case as the woman had not lived in Rotorua for several months and was eight months pregnant at the time.

The trial, before Justice Alan MacKenzie, is expected to end tomorrow.