Mountain Scene understands Corrie Jay Fitzsimon, 35, who moved to the Whakatipu to escape more angry creditors in Canterbury, may now be working as a mechanic in the resort town.
Fitzsimon was convicted on a charge of obtaining a motor vehicle by deception at his sentencing hearing last month.
Judge Catriona Doyle imposed a five-month community detention sentence and ordered him to pay the couple reparation of $26,500, including $3000 for emotional harm.
He must wear an electronic monitoring ankle bracelet, abide by a curfew and undergo 12 months’ supervision — usually counselling or a rehab programme — to address the issues behind his offending.
Doyle said the starting point for Fitzsimon’s sentence was 15 months’ prison, because of the number of transactions and "sleight of hand" his offending involved.
However, she applied discounts for his guilty plea and expression of remorse, which allowed her to convert the sentence to one of community detention.
She told Fitzsimon that allowing him to keep working would help with his rehabilitation, and supervision would provide oversight to ensure he "stayed on the right track".
He had offered to immediately pay the victims a total of $26,500, which "goes a long way to me accepting you truly are remorseful, and that the sentence I’m going to impose is appropriate".
"I hope this is the last we’re going to see of you, and the court should now be able to have some confidence you get the message out of here that if you do this, you will be caught."
The police summary of facts said Fitzsimon’s offending occurred in 2021 and 2022 while he was working as a self-employed mechanic in Christchurch, trading as CF Automotive.
The victims, who initially took their Range Rover to Fitzsimon for a repair job, later agreed to trade in the vehicle for a later model, believing his claim he was a registered motor vehicle trader.
After months of Fitzsimon repeatedly lying and stringing them along, they were left without a vehicle and $5000 they’d paid to him as part of the swap deal.
They finally went to the police after he failed to pay a $30,000 award ordered by the Motor Vehicle Disputes Tribunal in 2023.
That decision slammed Fitzsimon for the "extent and audacity" of his offending.
"This is as clear a case of misleading and deceptive conduct as is imaginable in the context of the sale and purchase of motor vehicles."
Comments on a Facebook page titled ‘Corrie Jay Fitzsimon, people he has ripped off so let’s find him’, which has nearly 200 members, allege Fitzsimon owes more than $300,000 to various creditors.
Scene has been unable to contact him for comment.
