Medal thief's orchard hides a treasure trove

Ronald Van Wakeren. Photo / Paul Estcourt

One of the Waiouru war medal thieves is believed to have buried a treasure trove of cash built up over 20 years of crime on his parents' family orchard.

"One man crimewave" Ronnie Van Wakeren, 39, has also managed to slip more than $1 million overseas into untraceable electronic accounts.

But the man known to police as "V-Dub" has secretly repaid his share of the $300,000 reward offered for the return of the medals.

The details were exposed by a Herald on Sunday investigation that revealed Van Wakeren was on bail when he stole 96 medals from the Waiouru Army Museum.

It also emerged he was discussing a security consultancy with Westpac at the same time he was ripping off the bank.

Van Wakeren, who has 242 convictions, has emerged as the personification of the twin crooks from hit TV show Outrageous Fortune.

He has the criminal genius of the show's smart but dodgy lawyer Jethro West. His inability to get away with it is more like Jethro's eager but bumbling brother Van.

Van Wakeren is back in prison serving an 11-year sentence, described by his lawyers as the longest imposed in New Zealand for burglary and fraud.

He earned his time for a four-year spree from 2003 to 2007 that sparked four major police operations, codenamed Pokie, Kea, Prince and Valour.

The resulting court cases took place in near secrecy because of orders put in place to protect his identity.

Van Wakeren pleaded guilty to the slew of charges, meaning much of his criminal background can be reported.

He was born in the Netherlands but grew up in West Auckland and attended Rutherford College in Te Atatu between 1985 and 1987.

Friends from his school days describe him as "quiet" but "super sharp".

His parents Rijk and Magdalena Van Wakeren worked in the flower business, growing for market from a large section with an orchard and greenhouses near Muriwai.

Van Wakeren left school and, like many of his social group, appeared before Waitakere Youth Court on minor matters.

He appeared to settle into an apprenticeship as a bookbinder, working 1000 hours before being fired after his first appearance in court as an adult.

That was for a scam in which he used equipment at the bookbinding company to produce about 30 fake tickets to a Bon Jovi concert.

Van Wakeren's technical ability foreshadowed more complex forgeries in years to come.

The forgeries passed inspection - he used four of the tickets to get into the concert and gave the rest to mates.

From that first blemish on his adult record, Van Wakeren amassed convictions rapidly. There were early signs of the scale of crime he aspired to - in 1991 he was caught driving a stolen $230,000 Porsche Carrera with a stolen $30,000 Rolex Daytona on his wrist.

Two convictions stand out as unusual among crimes of deceit and stealth, one in 1992 for possession of a shotgun and another in 2002 for conspiracy to supply a class-B drug.

Van Wakeren's spells in prison included an almost constant stretch between 2000 and 2003 for a string of fraud charges.

On emerging, his style of crime switched to embrace new heights of planning, scale and sophistication.

He proved himself capable of planning heists, disabling security networks, forgery and making money disappear.

The execution of his criminal plans was so unusual it became a signature - prompting police to consider Van Wakeren for crimes simply because of the way they were committed.

Detective Kelly Corby, who brought investigations to prosecution for three of the four major cases between 2003 and 2007 said Van Wakeren was driven by grand criminal schemes.

"He doesn't do drugs, he doesn't drink alcohol, he doesn't smoke cigarettes. He lived with his parents ... and thought of ways to do crime. He has a sharp mind but that mind is always turned to [crime].

"He comes up with these plans, he gets caught and he goes inside but the money is never recovered. He would bury money on his parents' property. It's 10 acres. We won't find it."

Van Wakeren was also adept at using overseas electronic accounts to hide his ill-gotten gains. He shifted and banked money using the online EGold service, which has been linked previously to international money-laundering.

Corby said Van Wakeren was a tactical criminal who never spoke of his crimes and waited to see what evidence police had before planning a defence.

She believed him to be "forensically aware" - studying police evidence to iron out flaws in his criminal schemes.

The Herald on Sunday has also learned Westpac entered discussions with Van Wakeren after he exposed weaknesses in banking systems while running a mortgage scam.

The discussions were aimed at having him instruct the bank on how to tighten security. The bank discovered he was carrying out another scam - and it was one of his targets.

Westpac fraud and security head Grant Henderson said the bank was aware of Van Wakeren and his modus operandi and had no intention of working with him.

A lawyer representing a co-accused at the sentencing this month described Van Wakeren as a "one man crimewave".

Van Wakeren's brother Theo refused to comment. "He's put the family through enough."

Legal mastermind

The Herald on Sunday has found Ronnie Van Wakeren's criminal mastery extended to the judicial system.

When in prison, he repeatedly appealed against sentences or launched cases aimed at reducing the time he had to serve.

When facing charges outside, he repeatedly tested the legal system to make bail and curfew conditions easier. That included getting breaches of bail struck from his record by exploiting loopholes in the law.

Van Wakeren used those skills in July 2007 to convince a judge to remove curfew conditions that kept him home from midnight to 7am.

He told a Waitakere judge the curfew was inhibiting his social life while he awaited trial. The judge removed the curfews for Friday, Saturday and Sunday nights.

Six months after the curfew was removed, Van Wakeren broke into the Waiouru Army Museum on a Sunday night to steal the medals.

Van Wakeren's crimes

Pokie heist:

Van Wakeren ripped off three tenpin bowling centres after disabling their security systems. He cased the interiors after abusing his relationship with his brother Theo. Tony Trembath bowled in a team with the brothers and said he believed Theo was trying to get Van Wakeren socialising with people to keep him out of trouble. Trembath discovered one break-in.

He said Van Wakeren cut a hole in the iron roof of the building and crawled around the ceiling area cutting security cameras and alarm cables. He and his accomplices took cash boxes containing about $30,000.

Trembath said Theo was devastated by his brother targeting a club and group of people who had welcomed him.

Estimated haul: up to $300,000

Mortgage frauds:

Van Wakeren ran two batches of complicated mortgage frauds, leaning on his ability to forge documents and convince people to work for him.

He used accomplices - called "mules" by investigators - to open bank accounts using forged passports carrying the names of genuine homeowners. The mules would then go to lawyers and ask for a mortgage to be arranged on that property.

The mules included mother-of-five Nicole Margaret Jones. One lawyer conned by Jones said: "He must have trained her very carefully and had the documentation very well done. They were so sophisticated and so well prepared."

Van Wakeren pulled off the scam at least seven times.

Estimated haul: Up to $1.5 million

The textile company:

Charles Parsons Textiles suffered a plague of crime for three months after Van Wakeren and two others focused their attentions on it. One of the trio was a newly employed staff member. Through her, the others gained passwords to online banking services. About $500,000 was transferred to false Kiwibank accounts set up by mules carrying forged passports.

The money was clawed back, but Van Wakeren and an accomplice broke in to steal customers' credit card numbers. Using eftpos machines obtained under false company names, they made false purchases with money paid to false Kiwibank accounts then sent offshore.

Estimated haul: $120,000

Inland Revenue:

Van Wakeren used forged documents and a string of false companies to rip off the taxpayer. The first step involved setting up about 160 companies through the Companies Office website. He then used a string of fake passports to set up bank accounts. The companies became Van Wakeren's tool for making false GST claims to Inland Revenue. All were under a cash limit that would trigger further inquiry. The IRD "refunded" the money to the false accounts.

Van Wakeren was able to pull the stunt for only one group of companies before the tax office shut it down.

Estimated haul: $30,000

The medals' heist:

There are still suppression orders around details of the burglary of the Waiouru Army Museum, in which 96 war medals were stolen, including a collection of Victoria Crosses.

The medals were returned after a $300,000 reward was posted. A deal was brokered by an Auckland lawyer and a sum of that reward money paid for the medals. Van Wakeren pleaded guilty to taking the medals and police have now confirmed he has repaid some of the reward money.

Estimated haul: Suppressed

david.fisher@hos.co.nz