Queenstown man ‘ripped off’ friends to gamble

Jake Gibbs took charge of finding a property for the friends to rent together in Queenstown. Photo / Guy Williams

A Queenstown man ripped off three friends for more than $14,000 to feed a gambling addiction, a court has heard.

Jake Ashley Gibbs, 27, was in the process of moving from Auckland to the resort town with the victims in May when he took charge of finding a property for them to rent together.

Despite being told by a real estate company a particular property was no longer available, he asked the victims to transfer a total of $9200 into his bank account so he could pay the bond.

When the victims asked him to provide a copy of the rental agreement, he could not, and claimed he had been scammed and the money had gone into a fake account.

On May 28, he and one of the victims, with whom he was in a relationship, bought a car for $8000, and the victim put $5000 into his account as her share of the purchase.

Gibbs showed the seller of the vehicle a screen grab of a bank transfer on his phone — giving the false impression he had transferred the money — and was given ownership of the car.

After the defendant returned the car to the seller a week later, he told the victim it had been towed.

She only found out he had returned it when the owner contacted her to say some of her property was in the boot.

The defendant was charged with obtaining by deception after the victims went to the police.

At Gibbs’ sentencing in the Queenstown District Court yesterday, Judge Russell Walker said the money intended for a property bond and car purchase had been lost through gambling.

The defendant had acknowledged his addiction to the author of his pre-sentence report, and a psychologist had diagnosed gambling and narcissistic personality disorders.

The defendant had “ripped off” his friends for over $14,000 in a “significant breach of trust”, Judge Walker said.

In mitigation, it was a first offence, occurred over a short timeframe, and the defendant had paid back some of what he owed.

He convicted Gibbs and sentenced him to 100 hours’ community work and 12 months’ supervision to enable intervention for his addiction.

He must pay the victims $8850 reparation in weekly instalments of $300.

— Guy Williams, PIJF court reporter