Herald on Sunday editorial: Our hearts don't bleed for Trevor

Trevor Ludlow at the Auckland District Court for sentencing. Photo / NZ Herald

It is a safe bet that few tears are being shed for Trevor Ludlow in the homes of the investors whose money he stole.

The former director of National Finance, which went into receivership in 2006 owing investors $21 million, this week pleaded guilty to eight charges of misleading investors and making false financial statements.

He had been found guilty in July of separate criminal charges of defrauding investors of an estimated $3.5 million.

At Tuesday's hearing, Ludlow asked the judge to pass sentence this week, because he wanted to be transferred from the Victorian gloom of Mt Eden remand prison to what will doubtless be a low-security and pretty comfortable environment.

"There is nothing to do in Mt Eden," he wailed, persisting in addressing the judge directly even though the judge strenuously advised him against doing so. "It's a horrible environment."

It takes an indifference indistinguishable from arrogance for a convicted man to talk back to a judge even as the judge is suggesting he makes use of his counsel - for his own good as well as courtroom protocol. But Ludlow had more in the tank.

The judge quite properly declined to pass sentence "on the hoof", a decision Ludlow described as "unfortunate".

"I have, through a friend of mine, enrolled to do some correspondence education," he said. "I can't do that in Mt Eden. I wish to move on from Mt Eden."

Of course it is a rum do that Ludlow's plans for Christmas at the seaside are in disarray. But the small investors who have lost their retirement savings and the chance to buy the grandchildren something nice to put under the tree are probably not oozing sympathy.

They may be thinking that Ludlow could while away the hours contemplating the pain he's inflicted and the error of his ways - which is sort of what prison sentences are for.

And when Ludlow begins the correspondence course, he may want to study the rudiments of ethics and even take the trouble to look up the meanings of words like remorse and humility.