Appeal by parole absconder dismissed

File photo / NZ Herald

A convicted fraudster who was sent back to jail for breaching parole conditions including engaging in financial activity, has had an appeal against his sentence dismissed.

Lesley Ronald Orchard, one of the main offenders in Waikato's biggest fraud involving property and loans, which left 50 victims hundreds of thousands of dollars out of pocket and some without their homes, appealed against the 20-month prison term imposed on him in April after he pleaded guilty to breaching parole conditions.

But in the High Court at Hamilton yesterday, Justice Graham Lang said Orchard presented an obvious risk of further offending and the court was entitled to put protection of the community first.

Orchard was one of dozens of Waikato finance brokers, accountants and lawyers convicted over a complicated series of frauds after a six-year police investigation.

The scam involved applying for loans from financial institutions and laundering the money, leaving either the institution or innocent property owners with substantial losses.

Orchard served eight years in jail for that and other fraud offences, and was released in February last year under parole conditions that ordered him to not hold positions of authority or engage in financial activity with any organisation or trust.

But in May last year, Orchard told a real estate agent at a mortgagee sale open home he was representing a couple from Raglan, helping them buy an investment property.

When he tried to obtain details from the agent of the financial institution instructing the sale, the agent went to police.

Two days later Orchard told his probation officer he had hired a manager to run a nightclub he and business partners planned to open.

He later told the probation officer he was buying a share in a popular Hamilton bar.

He also missed 11 appointments with his probation officer, and when the officer went to Orchard's address, it was discovered he had absconded owing money.