When Chris Churcher lost his fight with cancer in 2019, he died believing he was leaving his family financially secure.
Four days later, the Serious Fraud Office raided the premises of his financial adviser Barry Kloogh, and the Churcher family discovered their solid fiscal foundations had been built on quicksand.
"I am so grateful that he never knew," wife Karyn Churcher said.
"Chris died thinking everything was sorted, it would have been absolutely horrendous for him to have been lying there dying, he was sad enough to be leaving everybody without knowing this.
The Churchers were among hundreds of investors whose money was stolen by Kloogh, who today was sentenced to eight years and 10 months' imprisonment in the Dunedin District Court.
He will serve a minimum period of imprisonment of five years and four months.
Kloogh had earlier pleaded guilty to representative charges of false accounting, false statement by a promoters, theft by a person in a special relationship and obtaining by deception.
He also pleaded guilty to four individual charges of forgery, theft by a person in a special relationship, and two charges of obtaining by deception.
The couple met Kloogh in 2015 at a dinner hosted by Kloogh's Breath Financial Services. Kloogh advised Chris Churcher to upgrade his life assurance and add a trauma policy — timely advice it transpired, as soon after Churcher was diagnosed with cancer.
"It's probably one of the reasons why Chris was so loyal to Barry and keen to keep investing with him," Karyn Churcher said.
The Churchers invested not only the trauma payout, but also an inheritance, some savings and Churcher's matured life policy with Kloogh — an eventual total of $712,800 invested over several months.
Barry Kloogh outside the Dunedin District Court. Photo / ODT
Most of the money intended to sustain his wife and seven children should Chris Churcher die was instead stolen by Kloogh, as he shuffled money between accounts to sustain the Ponzi scheme Breathe had become.
"Chris had his insurance paid out on the Friday and four days later he [Barry] was there to get it all signed up and transferred over," Karyn Churcher said.
Of that, the majority went into the Ponzi.
Chris Churcher underwent further treatment but became increasingly unwell and eventually ceased treatment.
"Barry came up home, sat down on the couch with Chris and mapped out on paper how I would get an allowance until I was around 80," Karyn Churcher said.
"He told Chris 'Don't worry, we'll take care of Karyn', and Chris felt very happy about what he had done.
"There was never a moment when we thought the money was going to his bank account."
Soon after Chris Churcher died, Karyn Churcher went ahead with a funeral service she did not for second think she could not afford.
"Then my friend rang me and said 'Did you get the ODT today?' and I said 'no, it's still in the mailbox' and she said 'I have something bad to tell you'."
A couple of phone calls later, and Karyn Churcher was quickly appraised of the appalling news that the family savings were likely gone.
"Chris was excited about the fact he was about to become a granddad, and he wanted to leave a legacy," Karyn Churcher said.
"It wasn't about giving the kids massive amounts of money, it was about saying 'here is something for you from us'."
The Churchers had planned that Karyn Churcher could decide whether she wanted to continue to work or not after her husband died: now that is a necessity, not a choice.
Karyn Churcher is one of the "lucky ones" — she got a small amount of her money back as one investment was able to be found and claimed straight away.
However, she still faces an uncertain future and jokes bleakly that she will be moving in with her children when she is older.
"I don't want to be angry with him [Kloogh] forever," she said.
"I don't know that I can forgive him for what he has done, but actually I'm not that old and I need to get on and live my life without this sitting there constantly making me feel unwell.
"I don't want it to ruin the rest of my life: Chris didn't get the choice to live, I actually did, and I can't have this destroy what is left of my life."
