Netsafe chief executive Brent Carey says two-thirds of victims don't report online fraud to police, calls on Government to create an anti-scam centre.
Video / Alex Burton
Chirag Harilal Mistry’s home detention was extended after he swindled another $112,000 from Ray White.
Mistry used fraudulent invoices and altered bank details to divert funds for his gambling habit.
In all, he had stolen an estimated $337,000 from the Ray White franchises, for whom he had worked since 2016.
An Auckland property manager with an expensive gambling habit has had his home detention sentence lengthened after being sentenced again for swindling his former employers.
In all, Papatoetoe resident Chirag Harilal Mistry, 33, diverted just under $340,000 from Ray White franchises.
He appeared in Auckland District Courtthis month to face the consequences for $112,000 stolen from one Ray White SuperCity Property Management franchise that went missing in 2022 and 2023. It came four months after he was sentenced in Manukau District Court for stealing another $225,000 from a different franchise for which he had worked from 2016 to 2021.
“This is an entirely regrettable situation for you,” Judge Kevin Glubb said at the latest sentencing hearing, noting that since his arrest Mistry’s wife left him and moved overseas. “You say you used all the money gambling at SkyCity Casino and you lost the money.”
Court documents for the latest case state Mistry exploited cloud-based software used by Ray White for billing. The software can be used on any device as long as the user has a property manager’s log-in details. Mistry used his own details for many of the transactions but also stole those of his co-workers.
Auckland resident Chirag Mistry has been sentenced in Auckland District Court for stealing large amounts of money from his former employer, which he then squandered gambling. Photo / Supplied
On 12 occasions between June 10 and October 28, 2022, Mistry put false invoices in the system suggesting that Ray White owed money to other companies that had supposedly done maintenance work on properties Ray White managed. He then put in his own bank details for the maintenance work company, switching it back after receiving the bank transfer.
“On 28th of October 2022, the defendant resigned from Ray White Supercity, however he kept using other property managers’ login without their permission to gain access onto Palace [the software] to continue his fraudulent activities,” the agreed summary of facts for the case states.
He managed to change 16 landlords’ bank account numbers on 35 different occasions, garnering another $39,000 before the scheme ended in March 2023.
The defendant initially declined to give a statement when approached by police, but he later gave some explanation after pleading guilty. The court was told that he’s since self-banned himself from SkyCity.
Mistry was sentenced in Manukau District Court in August to nine months’ home detention after paying back the full $225,000 in that case. The $112,000 in the Auckland District Court case remains missing.
While currently unemployed, he’d be able to pay back $30-$40 per week if given a non-custodial sentence, defence lawyer Malia Fuamatu said. With reductions for his early guilty pleas, remorse, his efforts at rehabilitation and for his gambling addiction, the end sentence ought to be under the two-year threshold at which home detention can be considered, she argued.
Former property manager Chirag Mistry has been sentenced in Auckland District Court for embezzling large amounts of money from his employer. Photo / Supplied
Police acknowledged that the business had been compensated for the latest round of missing money via a successful insurance claim. Restitution was not sought.
But it was also noted that there was a significant degree of pre-mediation to the offending, that it involved a breach of trust between employer and employee and it had the potential to cause reputational damage to the business he worked for.
The prosecutor sought uplifts for his prior theft in a special relationship conviction and for having offended while on bail. The end sentence, it was suggested, could be either a lengthier term of home detention or a short prison term.
“He’s really lucky I don’t send him to jail, actually,” Judge Glubb said of the two counts of obtaining by deception, each carrying maximum sentences of seven years’ imprisonment.
He instead cancelled the defendant’s existing home detention sentence, which had been scheduled to finish in May, and replaced it with a new 12-month sentence. Mistry was also ordered to serve 100 hours of community work.
Imprisonment, the judge said, would “protect the business community from this sort of offending”. Mistry has been assessed as being a medium risk of re-offending.
“By the skin of your teeth you avoid that today,” the judge said, adding that Mistry was lucky the two cases weren’t combined because it would have increased the likelihood of a custodial sentence. “You have to understand if you come back before the court on any ... related offending you will go to jail.”
Craig Kapitan is an Auckland-based journalist covering courts and justice. He joined the Herald in 2021 and has reported on courts since 2002 in three newsrooms in the US and New Zealand.
Sign up to The Daily H, a free newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.
