SPCS

SOCIETY FOR PROMOTION OF COMMUNITY STANDARDS INC.

David Ross, convicted fraudster, has $725,000 house waiting for him outside prison

by Leave a Comment

Today a front page Dominion Post report has called into question an appeal submission by jailed fraudster David Ross‘s lawyer, Gary Turkington, against his client’s sentence of a minimum parole period of five years five months as being “unreasonably crushing” and “manifestly excessive”. Turkington, presenting his case to three Court Judges [see note. 1], questioning the point of such a lengthy minimum term imposed by District Court Judge Denys Barry at Ross’s sentencing on 15 November 2013, for a man in his “twilight years”, and Ross, 64, dwelling without hope in prison. “He’ll emerge with nothing”, he said, as he sought a minimum non-parole period of four years.

The Dompost report has highlighted the fact that Ross’s wife, Jillian Elizabeth Ross, who was jointly indebted with him to Ross Asset Management Ltd (RAM) for $3.49 m, when the company collapsed, has recently bought a four-bedroom two bathroom Lower Hutt home with her brother for $725,00, after she pocketed nearly $900,000 from the sale of the family’s former $2.2m mansion at 105 Woburn Rd, Lower Hutt. [Read more…]

Home detention prostitute loses appeal

by Leave a Comment

One of New Zealand’s most notorious female fraudsters has lost an appeal against her jail term for working as a prostitute while on home detention.

Andrea De La Hunt, aka Phipps, aka Wilson, has a long criminal history, including a jail term for attempting to murder an ex-partner.

She has now racked up more than 130 convictions for dishonesty dating back to 2001.

Full story: http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11271910

Recent white collar criminal sentences

by Leave a Comment

Michael Swann – 9 years, 6 months

Michael Swann was sentenced to nine years six’ months jail in 2009 for his part in defrauding the Otago District Health Board of $16.9 million. He spent almost $11.6 million on boats, flash cars and properties – buying some with suitcases of cash. A former employee of the health board, Swann was released on parole earlier this year after serving four years and eight months of his sentence. As at July, police had recovered about $3.6 million from Swann, mostly through the sale of assets seized under the Proceeds of Crime Act. Millions of dollars more remain unaccounted for.

Sentencing of other notable white collar criminals – continued [Read more…]

David Ross appeals fraud sentence to victim outrage

by Leave a Comment

The length of David Ross’ minimum non-parole period is “crushing” says his lawyer, who applied to the Court of Appeal for it to be reduced.

Anger from Ross’ out-of-pocket victims is still very raw as one of the country’s biggest fraudsters appealed against the minimum sentence he must serve in jail before becoming eligible for parole. [Read more…]

Cybercrime’s cost at $523b worldwide

by Leave a Comment

A Washington think tank has estimated the likely annual cost of cybercrime and economic espionage to the world economy at more than US$445 billion (NZ$523 billion) – or almost 1 per cent of global income.

The estimate by the Centre for Strategic and International Studies [www.csis.org] is lower than the eye-popping US$1 trillion figure cited by President Barack Obama, but it nonetheless puts cybercrime in the ranks of drug trafficking in terms of worldwide economic harm.

Full story:

http://www.stuff.co.nz/technology/digital-living/60096249/cybercrimes-cost-at-523b-worldwide