Rotorua emergency housing security: Tiny Deane granted second extension to sell business

Visions of a Helping Hand Trust chief executive officer Tiny Deane has more time to sell his security business, Tigers Express Security.

A licensing authority has given Rotorua emergency housing leader Tiny Deane a third time extension to sell his security business.

The Private Security Personnel Licensing Authority ordered him to sell Tigers Express Security after its June finding that he and the business were guilty of misconduct.

Deane is also chief executive of Visions of a Helping Hand Trust, which looks after several contracted emergency housing motels. It contracted Tigers Express Security to provide security at the motels.

The authority found Deane engaged two security guards — who he knew were linked to gangs — without proper security licences and let them keep working after their licence applications were declined.

It also found “deficiencies” in Deane’s management of the security company, that he breached the Private Security Personnel and Private Investigators Act 2010 and his “failures and misconduct” meant he was “not suitable to be the managing director and sole officer of a security company”.

The decision said Deane’s actions were in conflict with the Ministry of Housing and Urban Development’s requirement for a clear separation between social support and security services.

The authority said Deane must sell Tigers Express Security, which had about 50 employees, by August 20 or risk his security licence being suspended or cancelled. It originally put off making a final decision on the appropriate penalty until then.

In an August 21 authority minute, Patricia McConnell said Deane asked if the timeline could be extended until October.

She agreed to an extension, but said Tigers Express Security was to advise the authority by September 8 as to whether the sale had gone through. The authority extended the deadline until Thursday last week and has now extended it again until October 25.

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A spokeswoman from the authority’s office told the Rotorua Daily Post today it had extended the timetable to allow time for the purchaser’s application for a new company licence to be filed and processed.

A virtual case conference would be held the week of October 30 to update the authority on the sale and make further submissions relating to Deane’s penalty.

The Rotorua Daily Post approached Deane for comment, and a Visions of a Helping Hand Trust spokeswoman replied on his behalf saying they could not reveal who the buyer was until the sale was confirmed. They had no further comment to add relating to the extensions.

Deane temporarily stepped down from his role at Visions after the ruling to sort out the sale, and returned to work on August 21.

Kelly Makiha is a senior journalist who has reported for the Rotorua Daily Post for more than 25 years, covering mainly police, court, human interest and social issues.