Govt funded Mob leader on suspended sentence for weapon charge

The Herald reports:

A Mongrel Mob leader of a drug rehabilitation programme which got $2.75 million from the Government is subject to a six-month suspended sentence for a stun gun found after a police search at his home.

A stun gun constructed to look like a torch was found in the bedside drawer of Central Hawke’s Bay Mongrel Mob president Sonny Smith’s Waipawa home during a police search on February 10.

It led to the 57-year-old appearing in the Waipukurau District Court last month where he denied knowledge of the item.

So this is not a historic conviction. He is in court on a weapons charge at the same time as the Government is giving him $2.75 million to “rehabilitate” drug addicts by having them tend to his garden.