• Auckland property developer Ee ‘Augustine’ Lau has been sentenced to prison for grooming underage teen girls in Auckland and Rotorua.
• Lau, 50, was busted in an undercover operation in which he thought he was meeting a young girl at Auckland Domain.
• He was previously jailed for environmental offences, including damaging native trees.

An infamous Auckland property developer, previously jailed for killing native trees to improve his view and dumping sewage near a stream, has been sentenced to prison again - this time after he was caught in an undercover police bust trying to exchange gift vouchers for underage sex.

Ee Kuoh Lau, 50, who also goes by the name Augustine Lau, had already been warned before today’s Auckland District Court hearing that he would likely be returning to prison. The need for deterrence was too great given the nature of his offending and repeated police warnings, Judge Brooke Gibson told him in August, before he pleaded guilty to four counts of meeting a young person following sexual grooming.

“The behaviour was, I accept, consensual. But that is irrelevent to the criminality involved in this charge,” Gibson said today as he ordered a sentence of one year, 10 months and two weeks. “These are serious offences because young people have to be protected not only from themselves but from the lechery of men like you.”

Lau was described in court documents as someone who resides in Auckland with “numerous de facto partners who have children with him” ranging in age from toddler to young adult.

Police in Auckland first targeted Lau after receiving an anonymous CrimeStoppers tip last January from someone identifying themselves as a 14-year-old boy who relayed information about an adult with a Mercedes-Benz motorhome who was meeting young teen girls online before meeting in person for physical contact.

In February, a police investigator posed as a 14-year-old girl online and began communicating with Lau.

Ee Kuoh Lau, also known as Augustine Lau, appears in Auckland District Court via audio-video feed as he is sentenced for multiple counts of meeting a young person following sexual grooming. Photo / Michael Craig

“Mr Lau described himself as a 22-year-old male and repeatedly expressed his desire to meet the 14-year-old fictitious young female for purposes of taking her away in his campervan, so they can ‘kiss’, ‘cuddle’ and ‘sleep together’,” the agreed summary of facts states, noting that he also sent her a lewd photo and got more explicit about his desires.

He arranged a meeting at Auckland Domain for 8.30am on a Thursday and was, the judge noted, “no doubt disappointed and astonished you were met by police”.

Lau told police he set up the meeting to “establish if she was genuine in her interest in him and wanted a relationship”.

At the time of Lau’s arrest, Detective Sergeant Rick Veacock accused him of approaching “a number” of girls under the age of 16 through social media.

“It is alleged the male was contacting these victims, through social media, and offering to buy them gift vouchers in exchange for sexual activity,” Veacock said.

Three other charges for which Lau was sentenced today involved just such grooming of a 15-year-old from Rotorua with whom he started communicating via Instagram last December. On the day before New Year’s Eve, he drove his motorhome to Rotorua to meet the child. They then lived together for about a week at a Mt Albert address and in the motorhome, court documents state.

“Between 1 to 7 January 2024, Mr Lau gave the complainant a large amount of cash and she purchased high-value jewellery from Michael Hill Jeweller,” documents state. “Mr Lau also purchased a diamond ring and an iPad for the complainant.”

The child’s parents went to police to report she had run away in early January and with the help of authorities picked her up at Counties Manukau Police Station. Police warned Lau that she was 15 and told him not to approach her again. But he resumed communication with her via WeChat the next month, purporting to be “a wealthy and distinguished person who works in law in order to gain her trust and admiration”.

“Mr Lau also stated his intention to marry the complainant when she turned 16 years old ... and to purchase a house for her,” documents state.

Police outlined three other times when Lau met with the teen near her school, including a time he gave her advice on what to tell teachers or her parents if she was caught.

Defence lawyer Marie Dyhrberg KC said her client realises he has a problem and was “fully ready to engage” with counselling and rehabilitation.

“He sees he’s a risk,” she said. “He doesn’t want to be back here again.”

The Crown noted his pre-meditation and the need for a deterrent sentence. The judge agreed.

Although Lau received a sentence of under two years - the point at which a judge can consider home detention as an alternative - that wouldn’t be appropriate in this case, Gibson said.

Meeting a young person following sexual grooming is punishable by up to seven years’ imprisonment.

The judge also noted Lau’s previous criminal history, from 2008 to 2018. But he declined to uplift the sentence for prior offending because the prior cases related to the Resource Management Act rather than child grooming.

Lau was sentenced to two and a half years imprisonment in January 2018 after damaging six pōhutukawa and one totara - despite multiple warnings from Auckland Council to stop - to optimise the view from a Waiwera property. The trees were all large and mature, with some more than a century old, the court was told at the time.

Less than six months later, he was handed an additional sentence of two years imprisonment for 17 charges under the Resource Management Act, 10 charges under the Building Act and additional charges under the Companies Act. All related to illegal development of six properties around the Auckland region.

It was a record sentence - four times higher than the next longest sentence ever imposed under the RMA.

A Flat Bush property had been allowed a single dwelling but that was converted into two dwellings, while two former classrooms and a weatherboard house were moved there.A total of eight dwellings were on the property.

Meanwhile, a property in Pāremoremo with a single house and a garage was converted to have nine dwellings.

At the Flat Bush property, the sewage system became overleaded, resulting in sewage seeping onto the slope above a stream, RNZ reported at the time. At another property, he used asbestos-contaminated landfill, it was reported.

Craig Kapitan is an Auckland-based journalist covering courts and justice. He joined the Herald in 2021 and has reported on courts since 2002 in three newsrooms in the US and New Zealand.

SEXUAL HARM

Where to get help:
If it's an emergency and you feel that you or someone else is at risk, call 111.
If you've ever experienced sexual assault or abuse and need to talk to someone, contact Safe to Talk confidentially, any time 24/7:

• Call 0800 044 334
• Text 4334
  
• Email support@safetotalk.nz
  
• For more info or to web chat visit safetotalk.nz

Alternatively contact your local police station - click here for a list.
If you have been sexually assaulted, remember it's not your fault.