A woman accused of being a banker for the Tribesmen gang has been pressured to explain cash deposits of $351,378 into her bank accounts.

At her Christchurch District Court sentencing in 2020, Connie Elizabeth Ross, 55, was described as "essentially being the treasurer or the bookkeeper" for the methamphetamine operation her Tribesmen son Andrew Michael Smith was running.

Justice Rob Osborne used the term "banker" at her hearing in the High Court at Christchurch this week where the Commissioner of Police is seeking an order for Ross to forfeit much of the cash that flowed through her accounts.

Ross served a two-year nine-month jail term for her involvement in the methamphetamine ring run by her son Andrew, and for attempting to pervert the course of justice.

But she rejected much of her involvement in court this week, denying the details of the summary of facts which was agreed before her guilty pleas in 2019.

Ross and her husband Richard lived on a North Canterbury farm. The police have examined the bank account activity in detail from November 2012 to November 2017.

Counsel for the Commissioner of Police, Chris White, told Justice Osborne that during that period there were unexplained cash deposits totalling $351,378.

Richard Ross received income from doing security work during that period.

Connie Ross told the court of receiving income from her puppy breeding business, from tree felling and firewood sales, the sale of silage, grazing, and the sale of some items on Trade Me.

White took one year when there was $71,000 in deposits, 2015, and got Connie Ross to detail the income from those sources, which would have amounted to about $28,000. That left more than $40,000 in extra deposits paid into the account.

"You don't have an explanation for the other $40,000?" White asked.

"Without seeing the bank accounts, I can't tell you what the rest of the money was from. I can't answer that," said Connie Ross.

She said her son Andrew had access to the bank account. He was jailed for five years nine months for charges including supplying methamphetamine, conspiring to possess the drug, possessing it, attempting to pervert justice by destroying evidence, and a passport charge.

Ross told of her son giving her money to "hide in the bush".

On one occasion he told her to count out $30,000 and a separate $600, which she did. She only learned two days later that it was for a drug deal, she said. When she had asked what the money was for she was told to "mind my own effing business", she said.
She said she never sold or gave drugs to anyone.

She said she had used cannabis since the age of 16, and admitted that cannabis found at the property was hers. Andrew Smith had lived at the property when he was out of jail and scales found there belonged to him.

She said she started using some methamphetamine by stealing some of the drug from her son.

When she asked Andrew Smith about a series of deposits into the bank account he described it as "bill money". She was told he was "collecting bills".

Questioned by White, she described payments from the banks account including purchases of motorcycles and other vehicles, and repeated trips on the Interislander to the North Island for her son. The police say those trips were to pick up methamphetamine.

He also asked her about discussions - recorded as part of the police investigation - in which she told Andrew Smith to dispose of his phone, wipe the data clean, and change the number. She said his associates "weren't good for him".

She accepted she suspected her son's drug offending, but did not accept that she was involved in the offending.

The hearing is continuing.

- David Clarkson, Open Justice