A former director of collapsed Five Star Consumer Finance has been sentenced to nine months' home detention and ordered to complete 100 hours' community work after being convicted of the theft of more than $50 million.
Anthony Walpole Bowden in April pleaded guilty to two charges of theft by a person in a special relationship. The charges were laid by the Serious Fraud Office (SFO).
He was sentenced in the High Court at Auckland today, the third of the failed company's directors to receive sentences a result of the investigation.
Five Star marketed itself as a low or modest-risk finance entity that made small consumer loans for household purchases such as fridges.
Instead, it was allegedly investing large sums in complex commercial and related-party loans totalling more than $50 million.