Lawrence Alexander David Branson-Marsters, born David Lawrence Monk aka David Lawrence Marsters and Michael Aguilera. Marsters has been banned from being a company director for 15 years. Photo / Supplied
Lawrence Alexander David Branson-Marsters, born David Lawrence Monk aka David Lawrence Marsters and Michael Aguilera. Marsters has been banned from being a company director for 15 years. Photo / Supplied
A serial Kiwi fraudster once deported from the US has received one of the longest bans as a company director in New Zealand history.
Lawrence Alexander David Branson-Marsters - the latest legal name of a recidivist offender with 119 convictions - also faces a potential jail term following convictions formaking false statements to the Companies Office.
The investigation by the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE) estimated the total losses caused by Branson-Marsters' dishonesty offending, personal bankruptcies and mismanagement of companies to be in excess of $2.1 million.
"Mr Branson-Marsters' actions put him in the most serious of cases category," according to the High Court judge who approved the 15-year ban sought by the Companies Office.
In the most recent chapter of his chequered business history spanning decades, Branson-Marsters was prosecuted by MBIE for filing false statements when registering two companies.
An MBIE summary of facts said he registered one company, H & D Property, using the address of a downtown Auckland apartment in which he had never lived.
He also used a false name, David Harding, to register another company, Qualifund.
Lawrence Alexander David Branson-Marsters, born David Lawrence Monk aka David Lawrence Marsters and Michael Aguilera. Marsters has been banned from being a company director for 15 years. Photo / Supplied
Branson-Marsters, now 60, was charged with breaches of the Companies Act in December 2021.
A few months later, the Registrar of Companies applied to the High Court at Auckland for an order banning him from directing, promoting or managing a company.
In his judgment delivered June 14, Justice Geoffrey Venning said the Registrar sought a 15-year ban, which was not opposed by Branson-Marsters' lawyer Peter Tomlinson.
Venning's judgment and previous court documents obtained by the Herald shed light on Branson-Marsters extensive criminal history.
A senior MBIE investigator, Bryce Rayner, estimates the total losses caused through his dishonesty offending, personal bankruptcies and mismanagement of companies to be more than $2.1 million.
His 119 convictions include 74 for dishonesty, spanning burglary, dishonestly using documents and obtaining by deception.
Over the years he has also been convicted of 30 offences for breaching his obligations as a bankrupt person.
He has legally changed his name several times.
Born David Lawrence Monk, he legally changed his name three times, to David Lawrence Marsters, Michael Aguilera and most recently Lawrence Alexander David Branson-Marsters.
In June 2001, the Inland Revenue Department launched an investigation into his affairs.
But shortly after his initial interview he jetted off to the United States.
Three years later he was deported back to New Zealand following an investigation by US officials into false statements he had made to them. Preparations for extradition proceedings were underway when he was deported.
On April 8, 2005, he pleaded guilty to 48 counts of using a document with intent to defraud relating to filing fraudulent GST returns.
His GST fraud netted hundreds of thousands of dollars of ill-gotten gains.
Following a prison term for those crimes he was back before the courts a few years later, receiving a sentence of community detention for obtaining by deception and dishonestly using a document.
As a result he was slapped with an automatic five-year ban from directing a company.
Then in 2015 he was convicted and sentenced for a spate of dishonesty offences over a three-year period.
His crimes included roping a neighbour into directing a company which he had convinced the neighbour to invest in, violating his ban, as well as a charge of causing loss by deception.
For these frauds he was convicted and sentenced to five years imprisonment, receiving another five-year Companies Act ban.
In considering this year his latest ban from being a company director, Justice Venning said the court can make an order longer than 10 years, or permanent, only in the most serious of cases.
"Mr Branson-Marsters' actions put him in the most serious of cases category," Justice Venning said.
His ban will lapse when he is 75, or by further order of the court.
MBIE Integrity & Enforcement manager Vanessa Cook said Branson-Marsters' 15-year prohibition is the second longest handed down by the High Court to date.
To date only three people have been prohibited for longer than 10 years under Section 383 of the Companies Act.
They are David Blake (aka David Colin Hughey and David Morgan-Blake) and Lance Jack Ryan (aka Michael Darren Gibbs and Lance Jared Thomson).
Blake was prohibited for 12 years from April 3, 2019. Ryan was prohibited on the same day and was permanently banned.
On Thursday last week, Branson-Marsters drove up from the home in Papamoa Beach where he is living with his latest partner for a sentencing hearing at the Auckland District Court.
However, Judge Kathryn Maxwell had to adjourn the hearing because a required report was not yet available.
Attempts by the Herald to contact Branson-Masters at his address in Papamoa were unsuccessful.
Tomlinson indicated he would be seeking an electronically monitored community based sentence for his client, but did not mince words about the prior offending.
"He has got an extensive history, quite frankly."
The prosecution indicated they would seek a term of imprisonment of nine to 12 months.
