Mortgage fraudster Simon Lawrence Wood Turnbull gets three years' jail

Simon Turnbull appears in Auckland District Court. Photo / Nick Reed

A mortgage fraudster has been sentenced to three years and two months in jail for his part in a $33 million swindle.

Simon Lawrence Wood Turnbull appeared for sentencing in the Auckland District Court today after earlier pleading guilty to 16 charges of obtaining by deception.

The 43-year-old, lived out of New Zealand for years but was arrested at Auckland International Airport in June upon his arrival back into the country.

Turnbull, according to the Serious Fraud Office, was involved in a $33m mortgage fraud where false loan applications were submitted to a fund management company to purchase 16 properties in and around the Auckland region, between September 2006 and August 2007.

SFO director Julie Read said today: "SFO prosecutions against those who commit mortgage fraud help to ensure an honest market where New Zealanders can safely invest at a fair rate."

Turnbull's co-accused, bankrupt property developer and former New Zealand representative bridge player Malcolm Mayer, is serving a six-year jail term for what prosecutors described as a $47m mortgage fraud.

Mayer, in his 50s, in 2013 was found guilty of 26 charges in a SFO prosecution - 16 for dishonestly using a document and 10 for using forged documents - after a lengthy trial.

Mayer is not eligible to apply for release on parole until February next year.