Man paid more than $50,000 to keep extortionist at bay

A109 Light Utility Helicopter flight with mayor Gisborne City from the air in November 2023.

Having already extracted more than $50,000 from a Wairoa man by essentially blackmailing him, a woman went to his workplace to demand more money.

But police were there waiting to arrest her.

Diane Sandra-Leah Winter pleaded guilty in Gisborne District Court this week to a charge of obtaining by deception —- a replacement for one previously laid as blackmail for which Winter had been awaiting a jury trial.

A date for her sentencing, which will include other previously admitted methamphetamine offences, is yet to be set.

Winter first contacted the man in September, 2020, and pretended to be someone else.

She accused him of having had sexual conduct with girls under 16 years of age and said she would tell his wife and family unless he paid her compensation.

The accusations were unfounded but the man felt like he had no option but to comply.

He transferred more than $3000 to her account.

Following that payment, Winter persisted with her demands and threats.

By January, 2021, the man had made 36 payments, totalling nearly $44,000, to her bank account.

Winter also visited the man’s workplace to collect money off him in person.

That month he paid a further $10,000 after receiving two emails from someone claiming to be a lawyer acting on Winter’s behalf.

Police went to the man’s workplace to speak with him after his wife reported a large amount of money missing from their account.

While officers were with him, Winter happened to phone again and told him she was on her way to see him.

She arrived an hour later unaware police were also there.

They watched as she spoke to the man and intervened when she moved towards a cash till.

Winter refused a formal interview but told police the complainant was a “dirty old man” who had been “doing stuff with young girls” and that “none of the money” was for her — it was for one of those young girls.

She alleged the girl had to whack the man’s hand away when he had tried to touch her.

Winter said she had gone to his workplace that day because her account had been frozen by the BNZ — due to the man’s wife’s concern — and she wanted it freed up.

All the money the man paid to Winter was spent, withdrawn from the ATM or transferred to other people.

In court, counsel Alistair Clarke said Winter recently graduated from the Huarahi Pai drug rehabilitation programme at Ruatoria and did so well that she had been invited back as a facilitator.

Judge Turitea Bolstad granted Mr Clarke’s request for sentencing to be adjourned until after Winter completed that role in August.

Meanwhile, the judge ordered a pre-sentence report canvassing the suitability of electronically monitored sentence options.