$5.3m fraudster jailed for five years

File photo / APN

A Nelson businessman who cheated investors out of $5.3 million by falsely claiming he had invented a revolutionary form of data compression has been jailed for five years and three months.

Philip James Whitley, 49, was sentenced in Nelson District Court this morning after being found guilty of fraud last month.

Whitley had boasted his technology, a revolutionary "lossless" method of compressing data, would make him "richer than Bill Gates".

His company NearZero attracted $5.3m from 490 investors in 2006 and 2007, before it was revealed the technology never existed. The Serious Fraud Office charged him two counts of making a false statement as a promoter.

The charges carry a maximum punishment of 10 years' imprisonment,

Whitley earlier told the Nelson Mail he hoped he would get home detention as a sentence so he could work to pay back creditors.

- NZPA