While he avoided jail time, Judge Nevin Dawson warned him that, if he returned to court with further dishonesty offences, he might spend time in prison.
‘I’ll protect you from scammers’
On July 8, 2021, the Dunedin victims received a phone call from Ponga’s co-offender, who posed as a BNZ employee.
He convinced the victims to allow him to access their computers and internet banking to protect them from scammers.
Instead, he stole their money, taking $7200.24 the first time, before taking a further $5010.12.
On the same day, the Auckland victim received a call from a man posing as a Westpac employee who claimed her bank account had been fraudulently accessed.
He persuaded her to give him access to her accounts, first stealing $3190 and then $10,000 in two separate transactions.
Meanwhile, Ponga had opened an ANZ account on June 28.
On the day his co-offender stole the victims’ money, it was all put into Ponga’s account.
Ponga then sent the money offshore, in three transactions totalling $13,405.97, using WorldRemit NZ Ltd.
Another $11,931.09 was withdrawn from his account using various cash machines, supermarkets and service stations.
On July 26, Ponga tried to send a further $8603.98, but was intercepted by an ANZ employee.
He has not used that account since.
Church member’s ‘business plan’
In court, Ponga’s lawyer, Abby Brownlie, said her client got involved in the offending after being approached by a “trusted” member at his local church.
“He asked him [Ponga] to engage in essentially what was proposed as a business plan.
“Given Mr Ponga trusted the individual, he had known him for quite some time, he agreed to engage in this business plan, and he’s well aware that he was reckless in this money laundering scheme.”
She said Ponga didn’t accept withdrawing any money from an ATM, but when pressed by the judge, accepted that he’d handed his card to his “friend from church” to take the money out.
Ponga had a limited criminal history, but he had served a community detention sentence in April last year for four dishonesty offences.
Brownlie urged the judge to hand down another community detention sentence so that Ponga could continue to work in a shop in Hamilton, and thereby pay reparation to the victims.
“He takes full responsibility for the situation he became involved in, albeit he was wilfully blind.”
‘People need to be protected from scammers’
Judge Dawson said Ponga’s latest victims had suffered “substantial losses”, while the community had also suffered.
“People are afraid of being scammed and losing their savings.
“I denounce your conduct. It is unacceptable.
“You claim not to know that people were being scammed ... but this was totally wrong.
“People need to be protected from scammers and the assistance that enables these offences to take place.”
A pre-sentence report identified that Ponga’s attitude and his sense of entitlement contributed to his offending.
After taking an overall starting point of 15 months’ imprisonment, the judge allowed discounts before landing on 12 months.
He then converted that sentence to six months’ community detention so Ponga could repay his victims.
Ponga was also sentenced to 150 hours of community work and ordered to pay reparation of $10,546.37.
Judge Dawson told Ponga that he was “at extreme risk” of going to prison if he was brought back to court again on similar charges.
Belinda Feek is an Open Justice reporter based in Waikato. She has worked at NZME for 11 years and has been a journalist for 22.
