Hawke's Bay man involved in nationwide phone scam to be sentenced in November

At least 13 people were arrested during a nationwide phone-scam this week. Photo File

A man who is due to be sentenced in Hastings was one of at least 13 people arrested during a nationwide phone-scam money-laundering inquiry.

The 22-year-old has already pleaded guilty and will appear for sentencing on November 15.

The arrest was made during police offensive Operation Deadwood, a still ongoing investigation of what police say was a sophisticated phone scam in which New Zealanders have lost millions of dollars.

The Auckland City Fraud Unit has investigated reports of people losing tens of thousands of dollars to phone scammers, who convinced victims to hand over money after claiming to be from Spark and/or the Police.

Detective Sergeant Kevin Blackman said police had received more than 100 reports from people who had collectively lost money totalling over $2.5 million. One lost about a quarter of a million dollars, he said.

Police were still looking for at least three people, but had arrested 12 men and a woman, the arrests having taken place in Auckland, Hamilton and Napier.

Blackman says there could be more victims, and added: "We know there are victims that are either too embarrassed to report their losses or have directly contacted their banks rather than contact Police, so we don't know the exact scale of this offending."

The wanted people were named by police as Manish Khan, 24, Tushar Prabhakar 21, and Hitesh Sharma, 22.