$645,000 Tauranga fraud trial-accused claims major memory loss

Murray Bryon Provan, from Tauranga, and Robert Ian South, from Auckland, are on trial in the Tauranga District Court. Photo / George Novak

One of the two men accused of fleecing two elderly women of $645,000 denies any knowledge of the financial dealings, amid claims he had suffered major memory loss.

Murray Byron Provan and Robert Ian South are on trial in the Tauranga District Court defending charges laid by the Financial Markets Authority.

Provan has pleaded not guilty to two charges of obtaining by deception and South has denied two charges of theft in a special relationship.

The Crown alleges the pair fleeced Gay Rowling and Barbara Gilmer of $645,000 by leading them to believe they were investing in a software company but, instead, spending the money on themselves, Crown prosecutor Sam Davison said.

Yesterday the jury heard an audio-taped interview between Provan and Andrew Scheepers, the authority's senior investigator, which took place in October 2015.

During this interview, Provan, who said he was a retired chartered accountant, repeatedly claimed he had no financial dealings with South, nor the two complainants, even after being shown email exchanges between himself and South.

During questioning, Provan said he had no recall of some specific events following a heart attack and radiation treatments for cancer.

But he insisted any financial dealings Rowling and Gilmer may have had over these investments were solely with South.

"It was nothing to do with me at all ... it was Robert's intellectual property and his business alone and I had nothing to do with Our World at all," he said.

The trial continues today.