The proceeds of crime laws have traditionally been used to target gangs and drug dealers. Now police have their eyes on a new target, and that's left businesses feeling vulnerable.

A workplace death and health and safety rule violations sees a business facing the same confiscation laws as gangs

When the Criminal Proceeds (Recovery) Act was introduced in 2009, it was firmly targeted at gangs and drugs.

The legislation means police no longer need a conviction to seize assets that criminals can't prove were paid for legitimately, as long as their alleged offences are punishable by more than a $30,000 fine or five years in jail.

The proceeds from this are upwards of $80 million a year. When the Act was ammended last year, to draw in another estimated $25 million, the then-Justice minister's news release talked about organised crime, and making it harder for gangs and their leaders to benefit financially.

But in a twist that few saw coming, police are now targeting a business guilty of serious breaches of the Health and Safety Act, using the same legislation.

NZ Herald investigative reporter David Fisher has revealed that police have restrained $11 million worth of assets belonging to the boss of Salter's Cartage, Ron Salter, saying his actions in ignoring the rules helped him build up a fortune - and that fortune should now be taken away from him.

At the centre of the case is a 2015 incident in which one of Salter's employees was killed. WorkSafe ordered his business to be shut down, and in an 'egregious' breach of that order, he kept working. He paid more than $400,000 in fines and was sentenced to four and a half months of home detention, which he served.

Two years later, police laid fresh proceedings.

Now, the Court of Appeal has ordered that police must underwrite their case against Salters, so that if it fails, they pay for the Salters' losses caused by the police action.

The court had heard that the police action meant the company couldn't borrow money to expand, and if they tried to sell the business they would get less for it.

Today on The Detail David Fisher talks through the potential consequences of this action.

"Were the case against the Salters to be proved, then it would leave, I would think, many different businesses feeling extremely vulnerable. Because they could very much be the next one under the gun," he says.

Similar acts that could be used in this way include the Resource Management Act, the Fair Trading Act, the Tax Administration Act, the Financial Markets Conduct Act and the Land Transport Act. …

Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details