Christchurch businessman Nigel Thompson was jailed following a spate of fraudulent offending.
A businessman with a rap sheet containing more than 100 convictions for fraudulent offending has been at it again, this time duping an elderly widow of $20,000 and ripping off a church.
But despite the persistent and planned nature of his recent offending, Nigel Terrance William Thompson insisted he was remorseful.
“I would like full discount on my guilty pleas. I would like a significant discount for the efforts I’ve made in paying reparation, your honour,” the Christchurch man told the judge when he was sentenced earlier this year.
“I am remorseful and would like a discount for that.”
The 49-year-old was jailed for three years and seven months when he appeared in Christchurch District Court in July on a bevy of dishonesty charges relating to offending in 2018 and 2019.
Today, Thompson was in the High Court attempting to appeal that sentence, arguing it was “manifestly excessive”. The name suppression order that he previously hid behind was abandoned at the hearing.
Justice Anne Hinton has reserved her decision on the appeal.
At his sentencing, Thompson tried to have it adjourned, claiming he was not given proper legal help and the court was not provided with a cultural report.
He also wanted to vacate some of his guilty pleas, stating he wouldn’t have pleaded guilty to some of the charges had he known a custodial sentence was likely.
However, Judge Mark Callaghan said the submissions Thompson provided the court “probably covers more” than what a cultural report would. He was also satisfied that Thompson had sufficient legal help.
When he was sentenced, the court heard Thompson had 104 previous fraudulent convictions spanning from 1995 to 2002.
That figure has now increased with his recent raft of offending.
One of those victims, a 90-year-old widow, said Thompson had introduced himself to her as “John”.
Thompson began grooming her car and the pair formed a friendship. The woman became involved in his family’s life, buying them gifts and cooking them meals.
He would visit her at her retirement village at least twice a week, she told the sentencing court in July through her victim impact statement.
But after returning home from an overseas holiday, she discovered her bank account was overdrawn, leaving her “shocked and distressed”.
She told Thompson, unaware it was him behind the theft, and said she was going to the police.
The woman then received a phone call from someone claiming to be a bank employee. They told her there had been a bank error leading to the unexplained withdrawals and it would be sorted.
That person called her every day for a week, telling her not to go to her local bank as it was now a “head office” matter. She later found out it was Thompson behind the calls.
She was “devastated” to learn that not only had she lost a significant amount of money but it had been taken by someone she considered a friend. She felt embarrassed and gullible.
“He shattered my faith in people and left me wondering if I can ever trust [others]. I feel used and betrayed.”
After the woman discovered the truth about Thompson, he continued to contact her through phone and email but did not once apologise. The contact was so persistent, she felt emotionally blackmailed and had to block him.
Her Christian faith was tested, she told the court, but said she hoped to one day forgive him.
The elderly woman’s ordeal was only the tip of the iceberg.
In September 2018, the owner of the property Thompson was leasing in Addington visited him to discuss unpaid rent.
While the owner was there, he unknowingly dropped his wallet. Thompson handed it back to him - but not before taking note of the details of two of his credit cards.
He went on to use the details to top up his TAB account with $6000.
That same month, Thompson messaged a person who had listed her vehicle for sale on Trade Me. Giving her a fictitious name and claiming to be a registered vehicle dealer, he offered to sell it on her behalf. The woman agreed.
He went on to sell the car to a genuine buyer for $3300 and it was collected from the woman’s home. But she never saw a cent of the transaction.
Thompson attempted to undertake the same scam on a second person but the car owner, who had delivered his vehicle to Thompson, became suspicious and arranged to have it picked up.
When he got the vehicle back, it was considerably damaged and most of the petrol had been used.
Thompson also stole from the Celebration Centre Trust, a church group at which he volunteered on a number of occasions.
From December 2018 to February 2019, Thompson bought $677 worth of paper and ink cartridges for himself but charged it to the trust’s business account without its permission.
Around that same time, another victim let Thompson move into his house in Diamond Harbour. While residing there, he went into the victim’s room and obtained his credit card details.
Through almost 30 purchases, he racked up $1959 on the man’s card, buying Lotto tickets, Trade Me items, Apple products, online games and accommodation.
Further offending saw Thompson seek to establish a new company called Crusader Motor Company Limited under the alias of John William Thompson.
When he failed to verify the information he had provided, the company was removed from the Companies Register.
When questioned by a Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment investigator, Thompson said he was in the process of legally changing his name as “negative” media coverage relating to his previous business meant “no one would deal with Nigel Terrance William Thompson”.
However, no application to the Department of Internal Affairs for a change of name had been made by him.
Thompson, using the name John Thompson and Crusader Motor Company, had also entered into negotiations for a lease agreement for commercial premises in Christchurch.
But when the property owner discovered his true identity, the agreement was cancelled and Thompson left owing $2300 in unpaid rent.
The court heard Thompson was listed as a director for two companies, Nigel Thompson Motor Company Limited (NTMC), and Nigel Thompson Motor Company 2016 Limited (NTMC 2016).
He was responsible for the companies’ financial affairs but continuously failed to meet his tax and PAYE obligations.
Thompson also made multiple attempts to make fraudulent refunds through IRD, to the value of $35,682.
Thompson told the judge he got “too big too quick” and when things in his life began to fall apart, he turned to offending.
“It just snowballed your honour and I couldn’t control it. No matter what I did it just got worse.”
He said he did not deal with “big events” well and has post-traumatic stress disorder, adding that no one would hire him due to the publicity of his past.
Thompson said he took responsibility for his offending but was “not in a position” to pay back some of the money he stole.
Throughout the hearing, he spoke of his remorse and background which he asked to be taken into consideration when being sentenced.
However, a pre-sentence report provided to the court indicated Thompson had a sense of entitlement, did not accept responsibility for some charges he faced and was assessed as a high risk of reoffending.
Crown prosecutor Sean Mallett stressed that this wasn’t a victimless crime and that a lot of Thompson’s offending was driven by a desire to project an image of being successful and financially well-off.
“This is a man who is dishonest and who seemingly cannot help but take advantage of people when the opportunity arises.
“He lies and steals for financial gain when the opportunity presents itself.”
Judge Callaghan said it was clear from the victim impact statements that Thompson’s offending had caused significant harm, both financial and emotional.
“Whatever I do today is never going to satisfy them from the harm you caused,” he said.
The judge said while he accepted Thompson showed some remorse for one of his victims, he was “sceptical” about the rest.
Judge Callaghan took a total starting point of seven years and five month’ imprisonment for the Crown, police, MBIE and Inland Revenue charges.
He acknowledged Thompson’s guilty pleas, some of which came early and some “very late”, his gambling addiction and steps he’s taken to address this, and some reparation he has paid back.
The judge refused to give Thompson any discounts for good character, due to his previous convictions and the fact that some of the offending occurred while he was on bail for other offences.
In addition to jailing him, he ordered Thompson to pay reparation of $16,354, a fraction of what was owed.
Emily Moorhouse is a Christchurch-based Open Justice journalist at NZME. She joined NZME in 2022. Before that, she was at the Christchurch Star.
The woman was shaken by the incident.