You lie, fraudster told as he gets three years

Dark-suited with white shirt and tie, wannabe property dealer, career bankrupt and fraudster Vaughan Wayne Morley was unstoppable as he offered an explanation in the Napier District Court yesterday.
But Judge Arthur Tompkins wasn't to be another another victim of the man's deceit, deciding the explanation highlighted Morley's already-exposed lack of remorse and comprehension of the impact of his crimes.
There was no mitigation, Judge Tompkins said, and Morley, 45, convicted on four charges of causing loss by deception, was sentenced to three years' jail, with a minimum term of 18 months.
The charges related to four house-buying agreements into which Morley entered in late 2004 and early 2005 amid absurd claims of wealth just months after being discharged from his then latest of a series of bankruptcies which encompassed more than half his life.
He was bankrupted again when sued by a vendor for more than $60,000 over one of the collapsed deals. The stricken vendor had to resell under value to avoid defaulting on a buy she'd made in anticipation of the completion of her deal with Morley. It was the most serious of the offences.
Morley's offending mystified the court because the offences lacked the potential for him to make anything himself, or even to complete the purchases which, in some cases, had been made unconditionally despite his having no funds at all.
Defence counsel Eric Forster suggested it came from a psychological or emotional need for affirmation on the part of the diminutive Morley, who had conducted his own case in the unsuccessful defence of the charges at a trial in the court last month.
Offered the chance to provide an explanation from the dock, the veteran of bankruptcies, criminal offending and jail terms in both New Zealand and Australia claimed one deal collapsed only because of warnings police gave to real estate agents about his activities.
He claimed other deals fell over through other forms of misadventure which he detailed from the dock, still espousing that he had entered the contracts with access to the money he claimed. Judge Tompkins dismissed the explanations as Morley "even at this late stage" being unable to resist the compulsion to lie and deflect the attention from his own offending. He also dismissed as "exaggeration" Morley's pretensions to ill health, contained in reports to the court.
An application by Crown prosecutor Clayton Walker for a minimum non-parole period was justified by the callous disregard Morley continued to show for his victims, Judge Tompkins said, warning the Parole Board that when the time came to consider Morley's possible release it ought to "approach any assertions he makes on factual matters with extreme caution".
The spate of offences began in October 2004, just a month after Morley's discharge from bankruptcy, when he contracted in a conditional arrangement to pay $1.4 million for a home in Poraiti. The money never came through, despite his continual claims of its existence.
He also entered unconditional contracts to buy a house for $450,000 in Amner Place, off Milton Road, Napier, a $415,000 property in Clive, and a $345,000 home in Shakespeare Road.
The jury in his trial was told he signed another contract for $455,000, was interested in another deal for $666,000 and was looking at a $3.25 million buy in Havelock North. During negotiations he claimed he had made millions on the Auckland property market.