Police Search Home Of Heather du Plessis-Allan

Police officers are searching the apartment of TV3's Heather du Plessis-Allan as part of an investigation into the unlicensed purchase of a rifle, according to husband Barry Soper.

NewstalkZB's Soper tweeted a picture about 9.45am, apparently of police officers going through boxes of papers.

"Cops search our apartment in Wellington to find handwriting samples of Heather du Plessis-Allan to prove gun charges against her," said Soper.

Detective Senior Sergeant Andrew Saunders arrived at Soper's apartment this morning to present him with a search warrant.

The detective said it was being served to find handwriting samples of du Plessis-Allan.

Soper told the Herald police had made contact yesterday to tell him a search warrant had been issued for the couple's apartment.

"You have to be joking," Soper said he responded. He told the officers he was going out that evening so wouldn't be available and asked if they could come this morning.

At 8am, three officers turned up to conduct the search, including the investigation head Detective Senior Sergeant Andrew Saunders. One of the three was believed to be a handwriting expert.

"They went through drawers, bedside cabinets."

Du Plessis-Allan is a presenter on TV3's Story current affairs programme. In October, she broke a story highlighting a loophole which allowed the purchase of a rifle through mail order, apparently without producing a gun licence.

The mail order form, sent to the Gun City chain of shops, included bogus details - including an invented gun licence number which turned out to match a genuine licence holder's details.

It also included details which purported to show the purchase had been checked by a police officer and approved before the mail order form was sent to Gun City.

The current affairs show broke the story, saying the purchase revealed a major loophole.

Police immediately changed the process for ordering guns through the post - a form of ordering which constituted a low percentage of gun sales, according to Gun City owner David Tipple.

A police investigation was launched immediately into allegations "false details had been used to fraudulently obtain a firearm via an online/mail order dealer".

The police statement said possession of a firearm without a licence could lead to three months in prison and a fine of up to $1000. However, the investigation would also look further into charges of "obtaining by deception" which carried a maximum of seven years in prison.

"Police takes any incident involving the illegal obtaining or possessing of firearms extremely seriously," the police statement said.

Du Plessis-Allan defended the purchase as being in the public interest, saying it exposed a flaw in the gun ordering process.

Tipple said no loophole had been exposed because the .22 rifle had been bought by a deliberate flouting of the existing law.

He also pledged to take a private criminal prosecution against du Plessis-Allan if police decided against pressing charges.

- NZ Herald