Spread the love

An extended family of tourists from Britain, accused of causing trouble on a flight and leaving a stinking soiled nappy in an overhead locker, are then alleged to have gone on an anti-social spree while touring New Zealand – until they were served with deportation papers.

The family of 12, from Liverpool according to Britain’s Daily Mail, arrived in New Zealand on a Cathay Pacific flight. After that, their alleged antics while touring the country led a columnist in the New Zealand Herald to brand them “the world’s biggest bogans”.

The fuss began when an aggressive young boy in the group threatened to “knock the brains out” of a woman who had filmed the family leaving rubbish strewn on a picturesque Auckland beach.

Members of the same family were subsequently accused of dining out at various restaurants and then putting insects or hair in meals at the last minute, to get out of paying the bill.

Auckland restaurateurs came forward, recognising members of the family from news footage.

A Facebook page was set up to let New Zealanders know the whereabouts of the family.

When the group were allegedly involved in a disruption involving staff at a Burger King in the city of Hamilton, police and immigration officials pounced.

Police arrested a woman for theft from a service station. She appeared in court, pleaded guilty and was fined – and deportation orders were served on the whole family, the NZ Herald reported.

English media followed up on the saga. According to Britain’s Sun newspaper, the family is part of a group of travellers living on a site in Leicestershire that’s notorious for anti-social behaviour.

One local resident, who lives near the site (and was described by The Sun as too scared to be named) said of the site: “They copulate, defecate and urinate. It is never-ending. It’s scary.”

Footage went viral

A male spokesman for the family denied they were gypsies (as had been claimed), saying they were a “respectable” family who came to New Zealand to see Hobbits and visit the movie set where “The Lord of the Rings” was filmed. With all the bad publicity, they had cut short their visit to New Zealand, the man said.

Initial claims the family was Irish were rejected indignantly by the Irish Times.

Family to be deported from New Zealand is British, not Irish,” the paper proclaimed, continuing: “Group linked to several incidents had originally been reported as being from Ireland.”

A man who travelled on the same Cathay flight from Hong Kong to Auckland said members of the family created 12 hours of misery. Overweight adults deliberately encroached on people’s space and made repeated demands to be moved to different seats, while their children ran around causing a nuisance. Not to mention the badly soiled, reeking nappy, or onesie, left in the overhead locker, which “smelled like death”.

A spokesperson for Immigration New Zealand (INZ) told TVNZ the family was issued with a deportation notice after the Burger King incident.

“INZ can confirm that Deportation Liability Notices (DLN) were served on individuals involved in the incident at Burger King in Hamilton today,” an official said.

“Section 157(5) of the Immigration Act 2009 provides for temporary visa holders to be issued with a DLN on a number of grounds, including matters relating to character.”

Written by Peter Needham