John and Kathie Hands. Photo / Glenn Taylor
A disgraced Central Hawke's Bay accountant was today jailed after a quarter-century of deception which cost investors at least $18 million.
Warren David Bruce Pickett, 63, was sentenced to five years imprisonment with a non-parole period of three years and four months by Judge Bridget Mackintosh in Napier District Court.
Pickett, hitherto a pillar of his Waipawa community, 43km southwest of Hastings, had pleaded guilty in April to eight charges laid by the Serious Fraud Office of defrauding investors of millions of dollars.
The judge set a sentence "starting point" of 9-1/2 years, unusual for an offender with no previous convictions.
She then deducted one-third for guilty pleas and cooperating with the SFO which Pickett called in August last year after the liquidation of Waipawa Finance and Waipawa Holdings, two companies of which he was sole director and principal shareholder.
Judge Mackintosh also took into account Pickett's previous good character, although he had breached his service to a wide range of organisations in Central Hawke's Bay in a "gross way".
Investor and former long-time Waipukurau construction company owner John Hands, who along with wife Kathy lost $312,000 primarily intended to help finance a grand-daughter's organ transplants in the United States, echoed sentiments of many of about 220 bereft investors.
He said the penalty was not enough, and "they should throw-away the key".
SFO chief prosecutor Anita Killeen said that "legally-speaking" the sentence was high, with the significance of the judge's decision to go above the seven-year threshold in setting the starting point, but she appreciated the views of victims, many of whom had lost life savings intended to see them through retirement.
- NZPA
