Man jailed for $3.7m fraud

File photo / NZH

A Kapiti Coast man has been jailed for defrauding a finance company of $3.7 million.

Alan Edwards Wycherley, a 52-year-old from Waikanae, appeared for sentence in the Wellington District Court yesterday for conspiracy to use documents to defraud after changing his plea to guilty part way through a trial in September.

The Serious Fraud Office said today the charge related to advances made by Lumley Finance Limited to Wycherley's company Debt Relief (NZ) Limited between June 2004 and July 2006.

The court was told that Wycherley and another employee submitted 1030 loan applications to Lumley Finance on behalf of purported clients of Debt Relief (NZ) Limited.

The applications were falsified and none of the named borrowers was aware that they had entered into a loan agreement with Lumley Finance.

The proceeds of later loans were used to repay the earlier loans, resulting in a net shortfall of $1,248,961.49.

Wycherley was sentenced to three years' imprisonment and ordered to pay $30,000.

The other employee involved pleaded guilty earlier this year and was sentenced to 10 months' home detention, community work and ordered to pay $10,000 in reparation.

- NZPA