A disgraced real estate agent and convicted fraudster, already behind bars for insolvency crimes, faces more jail time after failing to declare income in breach of his bankruptcy obligations.
It has emerged that Aaron Carl Drever worked for an Auckland catering company after his first prison stint, but when summoned before the Official Assignee, he said his only income was a state benefit.
He has admitted misleading officials by concealing property and is set to serve an additional nine months in prison.
Drever was once a high-flying real estate agent, selling hundreds of Auckland homes and making millions of dollars in commission.
But he lost his licence for misconduct before being jailed in 2022 for stealing more than $100,000 from Auckland Speedway and pocketing nearly $500,000 in a cunning property deal involving Avondale Bowling Club land.
In March this year, he was sent back to jail for 15 months after admitting insolvency charges and impersonating a rich businessman.
The charges related to Drever’s dealings with an Auckland fast food company. He was found to have breached his obligations as an undischarged bankrupt – insolvency restrictions linked to his failed Grocer’s Market venture in 2019.
The Ministry of Business Innovation and Employment (MBIE) filed fresh insolvency charges against Drever in December last year, the Herald can reveal.
MBIE’s Business Registries national manager, Bolen Ng, said that after Drever was declared bankrupt in 2019 following the Grocer’s Market collapse, the Official Assignee wrote to Drever informing him of his obligations and responsibilities under the Insolvency Act.
“One of the obligations imposed on Mr Drever was to disclose information to the Official Assignee,” Ng said. “Failure to provide the information is considered to be wilfully misleading the Official Assignee, which is an offence under the act.”
Despite the warning, Ng said, Drever then misled the Official Assignee by making a false statement, declaring that his only income was from a Work and Income benefit.
He did not declare any employment and maintained this position when summonsed to appear before the Official Assignee.
“He stated under oath that he was on a benefit and not employed.
“When his employment status was queried by his insolvency officer, Mr Drever advised that he intended to do a training course and was not intended to be employed or undertake self-employment.”
However, Ng said, Drever was actually working for a catering company and receiving regular income totalling nearly $50,000 between November 2023 and July 2024.
After an investigation, Drever was charged with additional Insolvency Act breaches in December.
In July this year, Drever accepted a sentencing indication of nine months’ imprisonment, to be served cumulatively on top of his current sentence of 15 months, for breaching restrictions imposed on him as a bankrupt.
He is set to be formally sentenced in the Auckland District Court next month.
“The sentence imposed on Mr Drever signals the importance of complying with obligations imposed on individuals adjudicated bankrupt, and we hope this prosecution discourages would-be offenders who ignore insolvency rules,” Ng said.
In May this year, Drever unsuccessfully appealed his 15-month prison sentence, arguing it should be commuted to home detention in recognition of a “savage” assault involving a meat hook he suffered at the hands of another inmate in Northland’s Ngawha Prison.
His lawyer, Shannon Withers, said Drever suffered horrific facial injuries in the November 2022 attack, which occurred as he was preparing food in the prison kitchen.
Withers said Drever was believed to have developed post-traumatic stress disorder as a result of the incident and was fearful of suffering further violence after being sent back to jail.
“The appellant describes the sentence and attack as life-altering.”
Quoting Drever, Withers said: “Even now, I have recurring nightmares. I wake up in a cold sweat, remembering the overwhelming sense of vulnerability.”
Withers said the experience Drever had suffered in prison “is one that’s going to have continuing effects on his mental health and wellbeing”.
Sending him back to jail for the bankruptcy offending was “disproportionately severe”.
However, Crown prosecutor Dennis Dow argued prison was the appropriate sentence for Drever’s “calculated” and “cynical” offending, which caused significant harm and occurred while he was on bail for other crimes.
He noted Drever was in segregation.
Judge David Johnstone threw out the appeal, saying Drever’s offending showed his “disregard of the constraints he was under as a bankrupt, and his unwillingness to accept accountability for harm done to others”.
Lane Nichols is Auckland desk editor for the New Zealand Herald with more than 20 years’ experience in the industry.
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