"Missing" Scuba Diver Faces $50,000 Fine, Investigated for Unrelated Incident

In a follow-up to a story we posted on Sunday, the same diver who faked his own disappearance is reportedly being investigated over another unrelated incident, not to mention facing a $50,000 fine for the intense two-day land and sea search initiated by his stunt.

Mr Smithies, a Commerce Commission economist who was a publican at Tapanui before studying at Otago University, was yesterday charged with wasting police time after an estimated $50,000 was spent looking for him.

But the Dominion Post today reported that it understood that Mr Smithies was being investigated over another unrelated incident.

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Meanwhile, Smithies' loved ones remain in the dark about his bizarre disappearance.

He had earlier texted his partner, Jackie, to say he had found a good diving spot at Titahi Bay, near Porirua.

But he was not seen again until he handed himself in at the Clive police station, in Hawke's Bay, two days later.

He has since being charged with wasting police time and is now in fulltime mental health care.

His 74-year-old father, Gary, said his son was refusing to shed any light on his actions to police, his partner or his concerned family.

"It has come right out of left-field. We don't know what has gone on," Gary Smithies told the Sunday Star-Times. "He hasn't told me anything, he hasn't spoken to me. Colin [told police he] didn't want to talk to his family.

"Jackie has been with him and she is standing by him. She knows nothing, he hasn't told her anything. He is keeping everything to himself, that is the problem."

When asked what he would like to ask his son, Gary Smithies said: "What the hell happened? That is what I would say to him. I want to know what caused it all. But he is not telling anyone anything. We have no idea, that is the bloody annoying thing."

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Bizarre.