Fraud trial: Ex-Australian TV presenter Simone Wright accused of inventing sick son to perpetrate $35,000 fraud

Simone Wright claims that her ex-husband Paul Bennett was behind a series of Trade Me frauds. She is standing trial at Christchurch District Court.

An ex-Australian TV presenter allegedly invented a dying child to help perpetrate a $35,000 online fraud, a court heard today.

Simone Anne Wright aka Williams aka Smith denies making up stories of a terminally ill son being cared for at Auckland's Starship Hospital to sell motorbikes, a spa bath and other items worth thousands of dollars on Trade Me.

She has pleaded not guilty to seven charges of obtaining by deception and is facing a judge-alone trial at Christchurch District Court.

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Adverts for a Kawasaki motorbike placed on Trade Me back in 2008 said, "Our son has cancer and can no longer ride his pride and joy".

The Crown claims that the sick child was fictitious and made up to "engender trust and sympathy".

But Wright says she had nothing to do with the fake trades – and blames former husband Paul James Bennett who last month was jailed for more than three years after admitting a series of frauds worth $580,000.

She claims he controlled everything.

It's alleged that in May 2008, Wright set up two Trade Me accounts and two bank accounts while living in Napier.

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On May 27, 2008, a used plug-in spa was listed for sale with its listing saying it was needed to "help pay family medical bills".

A Dunedin woman won the auction and paid $4065 for the spa.

In an exchange of emails around getting the spa delivered, the seller said they were at Starship Hospital with a son on life support. The buyer offered her best wishes but the spa was never received – and she never heard from the seller again.

Another exchange involved a silage wagon and Suzuki quad bike sold for $16,500. When the items didn't arrive, the buyer phoned and spoke with a male who said they were at Starship with a nephew who had brain cancer.

A Kawasaki motorbike was allegedly sold three times, with stories around a sick son.

One witnesses today told how after buying the bike for $2650 he had a phone conversation with a woman called "Susan" and sympathised with her tale of a sick son with a brain tumour.

"As a father with a son the same age you get sucked along. It was a good game," the witness said.

They soon had concerns of a con and when they tried phoning back, got no answer.

They never got their money back.

Asked by defence counsel Elizabeth Bulger if the "woman" the witness spoke to on the phone could've been a man putting on a woman's voice, he laughed.

"Not a chance," he said, adding that the woman had a slight accent and might've been English.

Both Wright and Bennett were arrested as the pair sailed into Sydney Harbour after crossing the Tasman Sea from Northland on a crippled yacht in February 2015.

Wright was extradited from Australia to New Zealand in November 2018.

The trial, before Judge Paul Kellar, continues.