Brendon Karl Dean Harris, 26, denied the alleged $500,000 fraud during an appearance at Christchurch District Court. Photo / File
A 26-year-old man accused of a series of alleged scams today faced new charges, bringing the amount police say has been lost to nearly half-a-million dollars.
Christchurch man Brendon Karl Dean Harris also lost a bid for continued interim name suppression when he appeared in the dock at Christchurch District Court this morning.
He was arrested in October after police carried out a search warrant at a house in the suburb of Hornby.
It came after an investigation into alleged serious fraud offences, police said.
He was originally charged with eight counts of causing loss by deception and first appeared at Christchurch District Court on October 20.
Detective Sergeant Mike Freeman, in a press statement earlier, alleged that the man scammed victims out of $500,000.
The first eight charging documents laid in court alleged offending between June 23 and September 3 this year, and amounting to $395,189.64.
Amounts range from $3700 to $147,000, with Westpac bank named as victim in seven of the eight charges, and the Cooperative Bank in one charge.
And today, four new charges were laid, dating from between August 3 and October 15, and include allegations of defrauding Co-operative Bank of $4000, Westpac $31,023,08, and Kiwibank of $5670 and $49,123.48.
Harris denies all charges and was remanded in custody to a pre-trial callover hearing on April 1 next year.
Defence counsel Anselm Williams applied for interim name suppression to continue, but it was opposed by police prosecutor David Rusbatch.
Judge Raoul Neave declined the application but continued interim name suppression for a 32-year-old woman who has also been arrested and charged with possession of methamphetamine and causing loss by deception relating to alleged offending that occurred in October where a victim was allegedly scammed out of $28,000.
The “flawed” plan would be a significant setback, PSA representative says.