Con man gets five years' jail

Massey businessman Mohammed Ayub started a five-year prison term yesterday after a fraudulent land-and-house deal for low-income people fell through.

Ayub gave a number of families hope of owning their own homes with a small deposit.

But the deals collapsed and the deposits disappeared. Ayub then set debt collectors on the would-be home owners to chase debts he claimed they owed.

Yesterday in the High Court at Auckland Justice Mark Cooper sentenced 39-year-old Ayub to five years' imprisonment.

He told him: "Those to whom you made the false representations were generally people who had very little money and little ability of obtaining money from other lending institutions, and they were susceptible and vulnerable to the false hopes that you offered them."

The total amount lost by the seven individuals or families was only $18,100.

But Justice Cooper said it was money they could ill afford to lose.

Ayub, a Fijian, was convicted last October on 45 counts, including obtaining money by false pretences, attempted false pretences, forgery, using a document with intent to defraud, perjury, threatening to kill and fraudulently carrying on a business.

He also pleaded guilty to a charge of attempting to get his ex-wife to lie for him at his trial.

Prosecutor Kevin Glubb told the court that Ayub was a predator whose offending was "sophisticated and boundless".

He developed an elaborate scheme and set about promoting it to prospective clients through newspaper advertisements.

Ayub held out the prospect of affordable housing, sometimes with a free car thrown in.

He drew people in, obtained cash on the promise of a land and house package, but never performed, said Mr Glubb.

"In fact no sooner had the cash been paid, he became increasingly difficult to contact," Mr Glubb told the judge.

He said that despite taking the money from seven complainants, Ayub further victimised them by attempting to enforce debts he claimed they owed by sending a debt-collecting company after them.

When his scheme foundered, Ayub systematically made fraudulent loan applications to finance houses to fund his business ventures.

None of the $3.5 million he sought was ever advanced by the institutions.

Defence counsel David Young, who did not represent Ayub at trial, said that Ayub was remorseful.

He wanted to pay back those who lost money when he was able.

He said that Ayub maintained his innocence and said that his only goal was to help people into homes with little or no deposit, while making it commercially viable for himself. Some of the homes were in fact built.

Mr Young said that when a financial backer withdrew support because of rumours about Ayub, the rug was effectively pulled from under him.

That left his business in dire straits and Ayub desperate to stay afloat.