Second discharge for man on same charge

Press, 27 July 1989, Page 18

Second discharge for man on same charge

A Dutch national, living in Christchurch, has been discharged again on a charge that he was involved in a major drugrelated offence.

After a preliminary hearing in the District Court yesterday Judge Erber discharged Antoon Alfred Franciscus Melchers, aged 34, self-em-ployed.

The charge he had faced was of conspiring with Johan Van der Doe, and possibly other unknown persons, to import a class B controlled drug, cannabis resin, into New Zealand.

The conspiracy was alleged to have occurred in Christchurch and various places in the Netherlands, between December 16, 1987, and September 20 last year. Melchers originally had faced the same charge at a preliminary hearing before Justices of the Peace, on May 15. He had been discharged on that occasion, the Justices holding there was unsufficient evi-

dence to commit him for trial by jury in the High Court.

The police laid the charge again on June 27 and it again failed at the preliminary hearing yesterday. At both preliminary hearings Mr Doug Taffs appeared for Melchers. Mr Graeme Panckhurst appeared for the police.

Evidence heard at the first preliminary hearing was admitted, by the parties’ consent, for the second hearing. Thus, no witnesses were called for yesterday’s hearing. Another Dutchman, Van der Doe, who was named in the charge as the main alleged co-conspirator with Melchers, is serving a prison sentence of five years 10 months, imposed in the High Court last November.

He had pleaded guilty to a charge of importing the cannabis resin (hashish) into New Zealand. The case related to Van der Doe’s being arrested

at a Christchurch hotel last September 20, after a suitcase which he had left at Christchurch airport was found to contain 14.5 kg of cannabis resin, worth $500,000 on the drug scene. Before his arrival at the hotel the police had installed a listening device on the telephone in his room and recorded three international calls made to a person in Amsterdam, between 7.15 p.m. and 8.01 p.m.

Evidence was that soon after Van der Doe was arrested, Melchers arrived at the hotel and asked if a man, Hans, was there. He was arrested and questioned by the police. He denied knowledge of or involvement in any drug importation and said he had been asked the day before, by a man he knew in the Netherlands, if he would pick up and accommodate a man, Hans, who was to arrive in Christchurch the next day.

The man calling himself Hans duly telephoned him and he drove to the hotel to pick him up.

He said he had been used as a scapegoat and was adamant he did not know Van der Doe, and had nothing to do with importing the drug. A safe deposit box containing $15,000, lodged in Melchers and his wife’s name, was seized from a city bank under a search warrant.

Evidence was the police subsequently had found no link between this money and the drugs concerned in the case. The money has been returned After considering the notes of evidence, and submissions by both counsel, the Judge held there was insufficient evidence for the case to go to a fury.

The Judge reserved his decision on an application by Mr Taffs for costs to be awarded to Melchers for his second defence of the charge.