Fraudster Mark Jory loses student council seat after criminal past exposed

Mark Shayne Jory was until last week the mature student rep on the Otago Polytechnic Students' Association's council. Photo / Supplied

An adulterer who defrauded insurance companies to meet his lover's blackmail demands lost his place on a student committee because of his offending.

Mark Shayne Jory was until last week the mature student rep on the Otago Polytechnic Students' Association's council.

The Dunedin man was removed when the council found out about his past.
Jory's fraud was worth more than $300,000, as he tried to stop mistress Sharleen Louise Lynch from exposing their affair and scam.

Jory, a former financial and insurance adviser in his 50s, hatched a plan to defraud seven insurance companies by applying for false insurance policies and collecting the commissions.

He made 122 fake policy applications between 2010 and 2013 and paid $187,036 to Lynch, aged in her mid 30s.

This year, Jory joined the students' association council and did not disclose his criminal history, nor was he asked about it.

Association president Kayla Miller told NZME this afternoon the association would now look at council members' pasts and online presence, after a fellow member raised Jory's history.

He was contacted after hours by email and had no problem with the association's decision to remove him, Miss Miller said.

His role was to represent mature students and he had done so professionally, but Jory had to be stood down because he had a dishonesty conviction within the past seven years.

"Legally we couldn't have him on the board. We don't want to be seen as condoning actions like his," she said.

"This is a total learning curve for us."

Miss Miller said the association would continue to support Jory with his studies.

He was convicted on seven charges of fraudulently using a document for insurance fraud and two of forgery.

He was jailed for two years and three months and was released from prison on parole in December.

Lynch was also convicted on the seven fraudulently using a document charges and one charge of blackmail. She was jailed for four years.