A parolee who owes the Crown more than $1.5 million earned from a large-scale organised drug-dealing operation has been forced to give up $37,000 he claims was an inheritance from his father. 

Royce Allan Duncan was one of five men and a woman from a Tauranga-based crime syndicate who were rounded up by police in 2010. Collectively, they were charged with 203 offences. 

Duncan was given a 15-year jail term for manufacturing and supplying methamphetamine in February 2013. He was released on parole in 2018. 

Duncan was also ordered, in 2011, to forfeit $1.88 million of assets to the Crown under the Criminal Proceeds (Recovery) Act, which allows police to seize a criminal’s ill-gotten gains. 

However, although a large amount of Duncan’s property was seized and sold, including a 15m launch, less than $310,000 was realised. This left a shortfall of $1.57 million. 

This 15m launch was among assets seized from Royce Duncan. 

Duncan, who once hid $500,000 by burying it in a bucket on his lifestyle property, has since told the courts that he wants to get on with his life using money that has not been “tainted” by his criminal activities. 

He said this included $37,222 in cash which was seized by police during a search at his Tauranga house in December 2021. 

After that raid, Duncan was convicted of unlawfully possessing a pistol which was also found in the search, along with assorted ammunition and small quantities of drugs and drug utensils. 

The police applied to the High Court at Tauranga to seize the cash found and pay it towards the $1.5m debt. 

Duncan opposed the police application, telling the High Court he had received a $48,000 bequest from his father, Tauranga man Allan Duncan, who died in 2019 aged 78. 

The $37,222 was what was left of that inheritance after he bought and sold a motorcycle and some cars, and spent some of the money on home renovations and living costs, Duncan told the court. 

However, Justice Grant Powell said in a decision from the High Court at Tauranga that the forfeiture order in 2011 “creates a debt that remains outstanding” and the source of the money seized in 2021 “is effectively irrelevant”. 

“Even if it was relevant, I am satisfied there was no mention of any bequest at the time the monies were seized by police,” Justice Powell said. 

“On the contrary, Mr Duncan’s explanations on the day the search warrant was issued and his explanations subsequently given were inconsistent.” 

The judge also said that the discovery of the cash along with the pistol, drugs and paraphernalia was not consistent with any lawful purpose. 

Justice Powell authorised the seizure of the $37,222 to pay off a portion of the 2011 debt. 

Among the charges for which Duncan was sentenced in 2013 was one of subverting the course of justice. 

This related to an incident at about 3am on September 21, 2010, after a search had been made of Duncan’s lifestyle block near Tauranga the previous day. 

Police posted armed guards on the property overnight, planning to conduct a more extensive search in the morning. 

A disputed facts hearing in the High Court later found that an associate of Duncan’s, Kennedy O’Connor Williams, acting on his orders, entered the property with another man under the noses of the police guards and recovered $500,000 which had been buried in a bucket. 

Ric Stevens spent many years working for the former New Zealand Press Association news agency, including as a political reporter at Parliament, before holding senior positions at various daily newspapers. He joined NZME’s Open Justice team in 2022 and is based in Hawke’s Bay. His writing in the crime and justice sphere is informed by four years of front-line experience as a probation officer.