Jail for dodgy property consultant
Wednesday 23 May 2018
A Christchurch property consultant who defrauded the Selwyn District Council to the tune of $300,000 plus will be going to jail.
By The Landlord
Stephen Gubb was sentenced to two years and nine months in prison on 14 charges of obtaining by deception in the Christchurch District Court today.
As an employee of Hughes Developments, he sold land, leases, and design and build packages for Izone - a Selwyn District Council business hub development located in Rolleston.
The Serious Fraud Office (SFO) took Gubb to court for fraudulently obtaining 13 commission payments of $300,828 from the Selwyn District Council between March 2007 and July 2015.
They said that Gubb did this by arranging for a real estate agent’s office to receive the payments and then the agent was paid the commission through them.
Nearly $150,000 of these payments were eventually transferred into a bank account controlled by Gubb and a co-defendant.
The SFO alleges that Gubb’s co-defendant, who has name suppression, was complicit in obtaining the commission payments.
But Gubb also obtained $10,500 by submitting an invoice to the Selwyn District Council for services that were not provided.
Judge David Saunders added to Gubb’s sentence because he has previously been prosecuted by the SFO on fraud charges involving about $1.18 million in 2003.
On that occasion, he was convicted and sentenced to four years imprisonment on the charges.
SFO director Julie Read says the sentence reflects the seriousness of the offending which was not only deliberate, planned and long running, but a repetition of previous offending.
“Stephen Gubb defrauded a government body of $300,829, took advantage of his position and betrayed the trust his employer had placed in him.
“Gubb was given an opportunity to rebuild his life following his previous fraud convictions but instead chose to offend again.”
Comments from our readers
No comments yet
Sign In / Register to add your comment
House Prices
NZ market out of step with Australia’s slump
New Zealand’s housing market might be cooling but it’s in sync with global trends – unlike the Australian market’s dramatic decline, according to a major bank.
Commercial
Growth in NZ demand for co-working space
Developing co-working and flexible spaces in commercial properties offers big opportunities for landlords, the results of a major new survey suggest.
Mortgages
Decline in new investor mortgages
New mortgage registrations for investors have continued to slide over the past year, according to the latest Property Institute/Valocity Regional Insights Report.
