Christchurch fraudster Kieran Withers who fleeced $32,000 from victims sentenced to prison

Kieran Withers was sentenced in the Christchurch District Court on Wednesday. Photo / Tim Cronshaw

A man using sophisticated deception faces two years and nine months behind bars for fleecing victims of thousands of dollars.

Kieran Withers was sentenced in the Christchurch District Court on Wednesday on 11 charges, including obtaining money by deception, and dishonest use of a document.

Another two charges were withdrawn by the Crown.

Withers obtained more than $32,000 from nine victims over 19 months under assurances he would repay loans and return money obtained from some of the victim's credit cards.

So far just over $29,000 remains outstanding.

Among the victims were Uber and taxi drivers and job applicants seeking employment.

Withers used several aliases while in Auckland and Christchurch, including pretending to be a lawyer and an owner of chauffeur, hotel and horse leasing businesses.

Judge Paul Kellar told the court that the serious aspect in the sorry tale was the scale of the offences and that the victims were unlikely to get their money back.

He said high levels of greed and selfishness were displayed.

An aggravating factor was the premeditated nature of the offences and sophisticated techniques used to defraud victims.

Some of the offending occurred while he was on electronically monitored bail.

Withers was diagnosed as showing a personality disorder with narcissistic traits.