Ex-agent 'conned' $10m loans

Flats at 265 Kohimarama Road are involved in the fraud case. Photo / Richard Robinson

An ex-real estate agent allegedly used fake paperwork to secure bank mortgages in other people's names as part of an elaborate property scam involving more than $10 million.

The 38-year-old man, who has name suppression, went on trial in the Auckland District Court yesterday, facing Serious Fraud Office allegations that he deceived banks into lending money on 10 residential properties in Auckland.

The man denies the charges.

The Crown says the man and his former business partner, who also has name suppression, bought the properties in the hope of subdividing them during the property boom of 2006 and 2007.

As part of an alleged mortgage-ramping scheme, the accused's business partner, a real estate agent for Barfoot and Thompson at the time, would introduce him to people who were willing to put their names to property deals.

Crown prosecutor Ross Burns said the defendant would get buyers to sign a mortgage application which often gave inflated wage figures and made no mention of debt.

"Had these matters been known to the lending institutions, finance would not have been granted," Mr Burns said.

In one example, the pair bought a block of six flats on Auckland's Kohimarama Rd for $1.6 million.

The deal went through on November 8, 2006, and 12 days later they had signed up a buyer to a $2.2 million sale.

Mr Burns said the pair agreed to purchase the buyer's failing business for $100,000 so he could use the money for a deposit on the flats.

They also divided the block of six flats into two parcels of three so the buyer could approach two different banks for finance.

Mr Burns said the accused then got the buyer to sign a mortgage application form and filled in fake income details, leaving out any mention of debt.

The accused's business partner took the witness stand yesterday to give evidence against the defendant.

He told the court he forged rental valuations for the block of flats.

The false mortgage application details, combined with the fake valuations, gained $955,000 from the BNZ and $999,000 from Westpac.

Sale and purchase agreements totalling $2.2 million were signed with the buyer 12 days after the flats were bought by the pair for $1.6 million, according to the Crown.

The accused's former business partner told the court that he would line up the contacts to buy houses for the alleged scam.

He described how he met a sales manager for a city car firm when he bought a $250,000 Lamborghini car from him.

The sales manager bought a property in Three Kings after the accused nominated him as the purchaser and helped him secure the finance.

Mr Burns told the court the sales manager was promised $15,000 for putting his name to the property.

"He told them his income, assets and liabilities. He then signed a loan form," Mr Burns said.

But the loan form - not in his handwriting - included a $50,000 deposit which did not exist.

There was also no mention of his house or mortgage, and his length of employment with the auto company was listed as 15 years, when he had been with it for five.

Another buyer was the girlfriend of the accused's business partner, who bought a Meadowbank house from a company controlled by the accused.

Mr Burns said the woman never intended to make mortgage repayments, and was told the property would be sold within six months.

He said her salary and assets were exaggerated by the accused, who gave the mortgage application information over the phone to an ANZ mortgage manager.

The total loss to banks was not specified in court yesterday.

The alleged scam unravelled after both the accused and his former business partner ended up heavily in debt.

"The model collapsed and both of us had no money at the end of the day," the former business partner said.

Under cross examination by the defendant's lawyer, Peter Kaye, the former business partner said the deals were all similar.

He said he had never seen the finance agreement that the car sales manager signed, although he was at a meeting with him and the accused.

Mr Kaye accused him of trying to blame his client for everything.

The trial is expected to take a week.