A mortgage broker and gambling addict has been sentenced to four years' jail after swindling pensioners and other investors of at least $1 million.
Fifteen victims, mostly middle-aged and elderly, sat in the Auckland District Court yesterday as 42-year-old David Simon Barton was jailed on 81 dishonesty crimes.
Judge Michael Lance
read 28 victim impact reports before sentencing Barton, who took between $1 million and $2,289,000, depending on differing accounts by the defence and prosecution.
He had admitted 50 counts of theft by misappropriation, 12 of obtaining by false pretences, 11 of theft by failing to account, four of using a document, three of making false statements and one of crime by a bankrupt.
The thefts occurred between December 1993 and December 1998 while Barton worked as a mortgage broker.
From 1995 he ran his own Auckland firm, Park Avenue Mortgage Brokers, which had no links with a similarly named Whangarei company.
Prosecutor Mike Ruffin said Barton arranged securities for mortgages and also specialised in high-interest loans for people desperate to invest.
However, he lost $600,000 on horses and at Sky City Casino, and took heavy losses on businesses he had invested in.
Mr Ruffin said a typical example of Barton's offending was when he initially struck a legitimate deal with a Tauranga investor for $40,000.
He later took more money from the same person, kept the capital for himself, and paid interest on the money to avoid being caught.
Defence lawyer Gary Gotlieb said his client was "extraordinarily frank" with police, made a lot of money for the vast majority of his investors, worked hard to recover the money he lost, had been gripped by his gambling obsession and had saved the court time by pleading guilty.
"What we have here is a man out of control, even before Sky City was involved."
But Judge Lance said there was no chance of reparation and his main impression was that Barton "fleeced" his victims, some of whom were scarred emotionally and physically.
"They are unable to understand that level of deceit."
