Gina Potae appeared for sentencing in the Whangārei District Court on deception charges after pretending to be a landlord on Facebook. Photo / Shannon Pitman
Gina Potae appeared for sentencing in the Whangārei District Court on deception charges after pretending to be a landlord on Facebook. Photo / Shannon Pitman
With a $20,000 debt hanging over her head from previous fraud and a trail of 182 victims, a woman received a sharp rebuke from the judge as her court case stretched on for another month.
Potae, who has a 20-page criminal history in dishonest offending and unpaid reparation, sought an adjournment on her sentencing but had a hard fight against the Crown and Judge Gene Tomlinson.
“This is a woman who lies,” the judge told the 51-year-old, who swindled desperate families in their search for a home before Christmas.
Her latest offending dates back to December 2022 when she posed as the owner of a Whangārei property she did not own.
“We’re dealing with your 181st, 182nd victim,” Judge Tomlinson told her.
The court heard Potae would frequent Facebook groups for people searching for rentals that allowed pets. She would then approach desperate tenants with an offer.
On one occasion, she held a 45-minute face-to-face call with potential tenants, offered them the property, took close to $4000 in bond and rent in advance, before then ghosted them.
Potae never owned any of the properties she attempted to lease.
The offending happened close to Christmas and Judge Tomlinson said it appeared Potae enjoyed being deceptive.
“How do you have a 45-minute Zoom call before Christmas, take their money, ghost them and you have a family driving past looking at the house, with their kids, excited thinking this is going to be wonderful?
“How can you take that money and deceive people who are so desperate?
“This is a woman who lies and lies and lies and steals and deceives people and on the face of it almost looks like she enjoys deceiving people,” Judge Tomlinson said.
Potae pleaded guilty to the charges in August however several delays, including not reporting for a pre-sentence report and moving addresses without court approval, meant sentencing was stalled.
Crown lawyer Geraldine Kelly said Potae needed to go into custody because of her continuous delays.
“The Crown indicates she should be in prison so she may as well start serving her sentence now,” Kelly said.
The Crown also highlighted that Potae had recently started a new job with vulnerable people, which was a concern.
Gina Potae appeared in the Whangārei District Court for sentencing which could not proceed because her reports were not done.
Potae interjected throughout the hearing and said a probation officer turned up at an address when she was not home and then no one called her back. However, Corrections said that was not standard practice to turn up randomly at a property.
Judge Tomlinson said with an extensive history of dishonest offending and an outstanding bill of $20,000, Potae was a manipulator who knew what to say.
Potae interjected, saying she could pay $1500 before she left court, to which Judge Tomlinson said “Where are you going to get that money? You don’t have it”.
In the end, Judge Tomlinson granted Potae a final remand on bail to get reports done and adjourned her to a sentencing date in December.
Potae’s previous offending relates to deceiving relatives, banks and finance companies of $200,000 to feed a gambling addiction in 2007, along with further dishonest offending in 2019.
Shannon Pitman is a Whangārei-based reporter for Open Justice covering courts in the Te Tai Tokerau region. She is of Ngāpuhi/ Ngāti Pūkenga descent and has worked in digital media for the past five years. She joined NZME in 2023.
