ASB technology and operations executive general manager David Bullock explains how a common phishing scam works.
Video / Dean Purcell
Jordan Gregory Hall was sentenced in Auckland District Court to three years and one month for extensive email scams.
He appealed to the High Court at Auckland, arguing that his sentence was manifestly excessive. The judge disagreed.
The latest decision cited the recidivist nature of his offending, including a major IRD scam that was hatched while he was awaiting trial on the email charges.
A Gisborne area-based swindler believed to have been involved in roughly 1000 crimes over a nine-month period – including fleecing vulnerable and elderly victims out of almost $180,000 via intricate email scams – says an Auckland District Court judge’s decision to send him to prison was too harsh.
A second judge, however, has now rejected his appeal for leniency.
Tamarau resident Jordan Gregory Hall, 31, already had 16 prior dishonesty convictions when he was arrested in November 2022 for the email scams. He was released on electronically monitored bail to await trial but charged again just over a year later after authorities realised he had perpetrated a new swindle in which he received $138,000 from Inland Revenue by filing fraudulent GST returns.
Judge Edwin Paul sentenced him in October to three years and one month’s imprisonment after Hall pleaded guilty to 31 charges – 25 of which were dishonesty-related. Others included unlawful possession of a pistol and a meth pipe, cutting off his ankle monitor and fleeing from police at high speed in busy traffic.
“In respect of the 2022 offending, Mr Hall is referred to as the principal offender with occasional assistance from two associates,” according to court documents recently released to the Herald. “The total number of offences is said to be roughly 1000 but public interest considerations led to the primary focus being placed on actions relating to benefits obtained by Mr Hall and his associates.
“The total benefit gained equated to $178,991.65. The total loss was $127,438.37.”
After gaining access to victims’ email accounts, Hall would redirect emails to an account he controlled, documents state. He would then add phone numbers and other details to the account profiles, allowing him to outwit two-step authentication and obtain items such as passports, driver’s licences, and bank cards.
“Mr Hall utilised a number of techniques including taking on the identity of the victim, family members, and banks in order to elicit information required to gain and maintain access to accounts,” according to an outline of the offending. “He contacted victims purporting to be from a bank, asking them to verify their identity by providing an authorisation code sent to their phone. He ordered new bank cards linked to the defendants’ accounts with which he would go on spending sprees or withdraw large sums of cash at SkyCity casino.”
The victims were described by authorities as often elderly and technologically illiterate, making them “particularly vulnerable” to such offending. Many were targeted more than once by the defendant.
But his offending was also described as “sufficiently sophisticated” to deceive businesses and banks.
The subsequent offending while on bail resulted in three new charges of obtaining by deception. Authorities noticed that he had set up a new bank account and had deposited just over $200,000 in less than four weeks – well over half of which was identified as ill-gotten IRD gains.
He cut off his ankle monitor eight days before Christmas just over a year ago and was arrested several days later, following his fleeing attempt from a traffic stop.
During a hearing last month before Justice Michele Wilkinson-Smith in the High Court at Auckland, defence lawyer Anne Fisher argued that the district court sentencing had been “manifestly excessive”, with inadequate credits allowed for remorse, addiction matters and the time her client spent on electronically monitored bail.
Justice Michele Wilkinson-Smith has rejected scammer Jordan Hall's bid for a reduced sentence.
Hall had initially sought 70% in discounts, which would have allowed for a sentence of under 24 months – the threshold at which a judge can consider converting a custodial sentence to home detention. The district court judge had allowed just less than half of that.
During the October sentencing, Judge Paul set a starting point of four years for the offending, which he described as premeditated and prolonged. He added five months to account for Hall’s offending while on bail and prior convictions but allowed discounts for his guilty pleas, his troubled upbringing and addiction issues.
On appeal, Hall initially sought an additional 5% discount for having participated in a restorative justice conference, 20% for the role his addictions to methamphetamine and gambling played in his offending and 20% for the 11 months he spent on electronically monitored bail. His lawyer later acknowledged that the request for restrictive bail credit would have to be somewhat reduced because Hall admitted he was illegally using methamphetamine for three of those months.
Crown prosecutor Michael Kilkelly countered that Hall’s recidivist offending meant the district court judge was right to have placed little weight on remorse and rehabilitative efforts. Justice Wilkinson-Smith agreed his history made “expressions of remorse somewhat hollow”.
“He has had the benefit of remorse discounts on a number of previous occasions,” she said, noting his “very long” criminal history. “Similar expressions of remorse were provided in a [pre-sentence] report dated September 5 2022. At the time those expressions of remorse were made, the 2022 offending was underway and Mr Hall was already on bail for earlier dishonesty offending...”
Justice Wilkinson-Smith also declined to give a further discount for his time on restrictive bail.
“It is difficult to see how Mr Hall can characterise his behaviour as compliant,” she explained, adding that it wouldn’t be right to cherry-pick times when “there is no known offending” and give him credit for that when there was egregious offending at other times.
The High Court judge also declined further discounts for his addictions, noting that they “might provide some hope for the future as they are treatable”.
“But his ongoing recidivist offending indicates he is not, at the moment, at that point,” she added. “His needs must be balanced against the need to deter and denounce his offending and protect the public from further offending.”
Justice Wilkinson-Smith added that had all Hall’s suggested discounts been granted, the end sentence would be “manifestly inadequate”.
“Mr Hall’s offending was sustained; it was all committed on bail, it was varied and parts of it involved danger to the public, namely the driving offending when Mr Hall fled from police,” she explained. “Many of the victims of the financial offending are described as vulnerable and elderly.
Craig Kapitan is an Auckland-based journalist covering courts and justice. He joined the Herald in 2021 and has reported on courts since 2002 in three newsrooms in the US and New Zealand.
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