LAURA BASHAM/FAIRFAX NZ
West Coast beekeeper Roy Arbon is in an Australian jail accused of trying to import cocaine.
A Kiwi pensioner in an Australian jail on drug smuggling charges was duped out of $200,000 in an email scam last year.
A friend says it is evidence of Roy Arbon’s susceptibility to scammers and believes the West Coast beekeeper was set up to take cocaine to Perth.
Arbon, an alpine rescue expert who assisted in some of the country’s worst disasters, was charged by the Australian Federal Police for allegedly importing a marketable quantity of cocaine in February.
The 66-year-old is in Casuarina Prison near Perth and will appear in Perth Magistrates Court on April 1.
Friend Graeme Macilquham has received two letters and a phone call from Arbon in prison.
He said Arbon went to India to chase a potential business loan. He was then in Brazil before landing in Perth en route home where he was arrested.
« He’s shocked and stunned. He said he looked through the bag, checked it out and there was nothing. It was obviously in the lining. »
Macilquham is one of several friends who believe Arbon was duped into taking the drugs to Australia.
He pointed to a widely-reported email scam last year in which a West Coast man lost $200,000. The victim was Arbon. It was the proceeds from the sale of his home.
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« It shows you his mental state and how he thinks . . . he’d be very easy to con, » Macilquham said.
« I do not believe he has done this knowingly whatsoever. »
Macilquham said Arbon told him he had no legal representation yet and was awaiting approval for legal aid.
« Legal aid takes four weeks before they decide whether they’ll represent him. If not, he will have to represent himself and he intends to plead not guilty.
« It’s a pretty tough place by the sound of it. »
Arbon’s friends are shocked at his predicament. They say he was a respected man, who was a member of West Coast Alpine Rescue teams assisting in the deadly 1979 Mt Erebus plane crash and 1995 Cave Creek disaster.
Arbon’s Whakatane-based sister Martie Sisson said it was agonising waiting for answers. She wrote a letter to her brother for support and provided her contact details.
She was in contact with the New Zealand Embassy in Australia and a Perth-based relative was hoping to visit him after Easter.
« It’s frustrating for me, I can’t do anything, my hands are tied. »
A spokeswoman for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade said it is aware of reports of Arbon’s arrest.
The ministry had not been approached for consular assistance, she said.
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