An accountant has been charged with duping seven clients out
of half a million dollars - including $166,000 from one
person - but he denies the allegations and says he will
vigorously defend them.
The man is due to appear in the Hamilton District Court today
to face 24 charges for the alleged offending, between 2003
and last year.
There are 18 charges of obtaining by deception, four of using
a document for pecuniary advantage and two of theft by a
person in a special relationship, totalling more than
$506,000 in losses.
In one case the man, who has interim name suppression,
allegedly told a client he used more than $3200 she gave him
to use for solicitor fees to bring his partner back to New
Zealand from overseas.
One client is alleged to have lost $166,000 through a
property investment scheme that went sour.
Police said the client engaged the man as a property
accounting specialist to buy and subdivide a rental property
in 2004.
Five removable houses were bought but later sold to pay for
debt which police say was incurred by the accountant.
Another client allegedly lost $130,000 through a similar
scheme the same year when she bought an investment property
with the intention of renovating and subdividing it.
But police claim the man failed to carry out the renovation
and subdivision that was to cost $75,000, and asked for a
$55,000 loan to continue the work which was not completed.
The accountant also kept family support payments worth
$42,276 meant for another client, according to the charges.
The man told the NZ Herald he would strenuously defend the
charges.
- Natalie Akoorie of the NZ Herald
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