One of the pieces of equipment the man hired but didn't pay for. Photo / Supplied
One of the pieces of equipment the man hired but didn't pay for. Photo / Supplied
A serial “conman” banned from owning any business changed his name before going on to scam three equipment hire companies out of $450,000.
“It was very cold, very calculating…he’s an absolute conman,” the managing director of one of those businesses told NZME.
“It had a massive impact on our business….but he also just left a trail of destruction throughout the whole country.”
The man, who did not want to be named, said their “trusting” business was taken advantage of over the Covid lockdown period and it had since changed its policies to become hard-nosed with any new customers.
Today at the Palmerston North District Court a man, who was granted interim name suppression, was sentenced to 10 months home detention for the raft of offending that spanned several years and multiple companies across the North Island.
“Your offending speaks of deep dishonesty with profound financial impacts for your victims,” Judge Bruce Northwood said.
“You cannot pay them, and I would struggle to prise the money out of you in the form of reparations.”
Changed his name
According to the summary of facts the man changed his name two years after after being convicted of multiple dishonesty convictions. He then started a company under his new name. The law prohibits anyone with dishonesty convictions from acting as the director of a company for at least five years.
The man then contacted a hiring company and proceeded to borrow excavators, trucks and utes from the company and racked up a bill of $117,000 over the course of 18 months, of which he only paid a total of $6000 back to them.
The company then had to go and uplift its vehicles, some of which had gone as far as Auckland, with one person in possession of one of their cars claiming the man had given him the ute as part payment for a debt.
The man made multiple promises to pay back the money to the hire company including that he’d settle the bill once he was paid for the work he was doing on the Transmission Gully highway.
However, by July 2020 he continued to ignore requests for payment and became abusive to the company’s managing director and claimed that he couldn’t take him to court because he’d paid a small percentage of the total bill.
Then in February 2020, the man contacted another company in regards to hiring a bulldozer he’d seen advertised on Facebook.
He signed a promissory note for $20,000 as pre-payment and the bulldozer was transported to a site in Pōkeno. Come March the same year the company issued its first invoice to the man, who explained that he was still waiting on payment from some Chinese business acquaintances.
The next month he met the owners of the hire company at a motel and paid them $10,000 in $50 notes as part payment. This was the last payment the company received from him despite him having incurred a total debt of $220,000 from them.
The company owners uplifted the bulldozer and sent the man an email indicating they needed payment ASAP and would otherwise be taking the matter further.
“Just go to court,” he replied by text.
“After all the help we gave you this is how you treat us…unbelievable,” the owner replied.
“U been talk shit m8 I like games like this,” was the response.’
‘He lived the high life’
The owner of that company passed away in February last year but his widow told NZME that the man’s “scam” put them under considerable financial duress.
“I know I will never see the money owed, but it hurts when we tried to help a young man only to be kicked in the guts while he lived the high life,” she said.
In February 2021 the man contacted a third hire company and arranged to hire four trucks, trailers and drivers to complete projects in New Plymouth and Pōkeno.
Within four months he was invoiced a bill for $112,000 of which he sent his partner to deliver $10,000 in cash to the company director’s home. Again this was the only payment the company received despite repeated attempts to settle his bill.
The man’s company is currently in liquidation and owes creditors nearly $700,000.
The man claimed he'd pay back one of the businesses after he was paid for work he was doing on the Transmission Gully highway. Photo / Mark Mitchell
According to documents filed to the Companies Office, the man told liquidators he’d ceased trading in March or April 2021 - but their enquiries revealed he’d continued operating for another six months.
Those liquidators said in their report that the man had told them that all the company’s assets had been sold to pay debtors. Their investigation also noted that the company didn’t have its own bank account and transactions were conducted through a person known to the man instead.
A troubled upbringing
In July 2021 the man was contacted by the Registrar of Companies informing him he was prohibited from acting as the director of a company - he eventually responded by email, and then when contacted again by the registrar claimed that the delay was caused by his inability to read.
At his sentencing, the man’s lawyer, Tim Hesketh, said that his client had grown up around drug use and violence from a young age.
“His upbringing predisposed him to a life of crime,” Hesketh said.
“And I think that [his] culpability is lessened slightly by his traumatic and sad upbringing.”
Hesketh said his client had a stable job, had saved nearly $4000 to pay his victims back and was otherwise making inroads to clean up his act.
Judge Northwood said he failed to see a connection between a violent upbringing and the kind of persistent financial scamming the man was being sentenced on.
“You have a shocking history of fraud and financially harming people,” he said.
Despite this history, the man supplied references from friends and family speaking to his good character which Judge Northwood said didn’t marry up to the offending he’d pleaded guilty to last year.
“I do wonder if these people understand the full extent of the damage you’ve done,” he said.
Judge Northwood sentenced the man to 10 months of community detention for causing loss by deception, making false statements to the Ministry of Business Innovation and Employment, carrying out business fraudulently and operating a business while prohibited from doing so.
The man will have a separate hearing to determine whether he’s granted permanent name suppression.
Jeremy Wilkinson is an Open Justice reporter based in Manawatū covering courts and justice issues with an interest in tribunals. He has been a journalist for nearly a decade and has worked for NZME since 2022.
