Bankrupt businessman jailed

A judge has branded a Tauranga businessman and undischarged bankrupt a "serial liar" - and jailed him for 15 months.

Raymond Anthony Andrews, 63, was yesterday sentenced on seven counts of controlling a business while bankrupt, plus two each of obtaining credit by deception and concealing property, namely two bank accounts.

Andrews was bankrupted in 2008 after a creditors' petition. He had been director of four failed companies, one of which was laser hair removal company IMG MedPro, before his bankruptcy.

An undischarged bankrupt cannot engage any business management or control or obtain credit without the the Official Assignee's permission.

But between 2008 and 2011, Andrews defied the Official Assignee's instructions and engaged in similar business activities after misrepresenting himself to business owners in the industry he had previously worked in.

Judge Thomas Ingram said Andrews "deceived and preyed on vulnerable people" over several years, including using his son's name as a front for some of his activities. When Andrews belatedly asked the Official Assignee for permission to have control of a business and was refused, he became unco-operative and continued deceiving people, the judge said.

The two charges of concealing property relate to his failure to tell the Official Assignee he opened two bank accounts in December 2008 and January 2011.

A forensic analysis of bank statements found Andrews received undeclared income of $100,020.57 between December 24, 2008 and August 8, 2011.

Defence lawyer Bill Nabney sought home detention.

But Judge Ingram told Andrews, found guilty at a jury trial last month, he needed to protect the rest of the community from "serial liars" like him.

"I have met some liars in my 35 years working in the courts but the lies you have told have been significantly outstanding, and you even had the jury in fits of laughter because your explanations were so improbable."