Q What is this site about?
A We have been campaigning against our insurer, State Insurance, part of the IAG group for years. They knew I wasn’t responsible for the fire just days after the fire but refused to meet the claims. Now we have time to look more deeply into the events that led us to this position. We detail them here and hope that by doing so others will be warned and take actions to protect themselves. It is in the Public Interest for everything here to be made public.
Q Why now, after almost 11 years?
A The first chance we have had really, IAG took almost 5 years trying to show I committed arson. Trying to sort out the bankruptcy only failed last month. IAG seem to have massive powers over the legal system so it is hopeless challenging them in the Courts. Our publicity about their illegal actions continues however.
Q What do you hope to achieve?
A Two things really, firstly to prevent other innocent people being drawn into the same position. The pollution is still out there, people are selling the contaminated properties without disclosure. The estate agents happily sell it, they earn significant commissions doing so and people are getting ill and eventually will die due to their actions.
Some compensation would be nice. We were well off after a lifetime of hard work. I started with nothing, build several businesses and a great reputation, but 6 years in NZ saw that all vanish in smoke. We did nothing wrong. The publicity materials sent to us, as immigrants, by the New Zealand Government was highly misleading, stating NZ was 100% Pure with NO Pollution. Kerikeri Estate Agent, Ian Knox saw us as rich, ignorant idiots. He took wild advantage of his position and sold us our house, Killara, not telling us it was contaminated with deadly toxins.
Q Now you have left NZ you are away from the damaging pollution, safe surely?
A If only it was that simple! Arsenic is a strange toxin, it damages cells in your body and then vanishes leaving little trace. Those damaged cells remain and often become cancerous later in life, particularly in the digestive tract. This can happen many years after exposure, having been exposed for 6 years, we will all have over a 95% chance of dying due to the exposure to Arsenic, Dioxin and the other toxins.
Q Why should Ray White or the NZ Government compensate you?
A We all have suffered badly, our health has been seriously damaged by what happened to us. The Government promised us ‘100% Pure NZ’ with no pollution in their attempt to lure us to New Zealand and we were foolish enough to swallow their lies. Ian Knox was happy for us to die provided he got our money, disgusting.
Both, lied and cheated us. That resulted in serious damage to our health and our finances, now all I can do is tell the story with no spin – the TRUTH is all that is needed.
Q Are you asking for millions of dollars?
A Asking yes, naturally but expecting, NO! Let’s see if they will talk to us and see if we can put the matter to bed amicably. We will not go to Court, we have suffered so badly there for the last 11 years. It is a simple, honest request for some help to put our life back on track rather than the struggle each day has become due to the actions they took. Our lives have been destroyed by these actions, IAG cheat and lie to prevent paying us under the insurance. A relatively modest sum would make the World of difference.
Q Shouldn’t you have been more careful, taken more advice and checked more?
A Of course, in retrospect yes! We did ask Ian Knox ‘What is wrong with the property?’ he replied,’Nothing, it is perfect!’
However, I doubt checks would have made any difference, the New Zealand Government has a system in place that squashes protest about pollution. The LIM report had been whitewashed showing no record of the damaging history, removing the safety net.
Ian Knox, sat behind his JP sign, clean polished and professing to be one of the good guys. Nobody said a bad word against him but his actions relating to Killara are beyond dispute and utterly unbelievable – he was a crook of the highest order. Selling property contaminated with deadly toxins without disclosure is tantamount to killing people for their money!
Q Do you miss New Zealand and Kerikeri?
A Naturally yes, we worked so hard on completing Killara, it seemed like paradise and we had decided to remediate the water supply and, like most people in Kerikeri, live out our days in the sun of the Bay of Islands. Then we started to learn about the pollution and the way we had been trapped and the gloss of living in New Zealand vanished very quickly.
Q You are the one with the criminal record, not Ian Knox or the Government ministers, it is a bit rich for you to accuse them surely?
A The only thing I did wrong was to fight against the power of IAG, my lawyers and several Judges all agreed that I never committed blackmail. There was never a threat, the documents that they claimed I threatened to publish had all been published on my website months earlier, old news. In any case, I had every right as an innocent person to publish the hard evidence of IAG falsifying the case against me to avoid meeting our claims. The case is now under review and I trust it will be quashed.