Former West Auckland real estate agent Aaron Drever sold hundreds of homes and made millions of dollars in commission. Photo / Brett Phibbs
He was once one of the country's most successful real estate agents. Today's he's a jailed fraudster who ripped off a bowling club and his late father's best friend. Lane Nichols investigates the sad downfall of Aaron Drever.
As former butcher Carl Drever prepared to die, his best mate Bill Buckley made him a solemn promise.
Buckley - a rich businessman who then held the licence to run his beloved Western Springs Speedway - promised his dying mate he would look after his son Aaron.
Aaron Carl Drever - a disgraced real estate agent who at the time was under police investigation for pocketing $500,000 in a cunning Avondale Bowling Club land deal - made his own promise to his cancer-stricken dad.
"Aaron promised his father he would look after me," Buckley would later write in a victim impact statement.
Buckley had known Aaron Drever since he was a young boy and after Carl's 2017 death, the grieving son would refer to his father's old friend as his "substitute dad".
So when Drever approached Buckley in June 2019 after the collapse of his doomed Grocer's Market business asking for work, Buckley kept his promise and gave him a job.
He had to convince the speedway board to bring Drever on. The board was reluctant, warning Buckley that with Drever's dubious track record he was a risky proposition who "would rip the speedway off", a source says.
Perhaps out of loyalty, Buckley refused to listen. He would later live to regret it.
Within weeks of taking up a volunteer position dealing with marketing and advertising, Drever was forging fake invoices for Buckley to sign off and would soon siphon more than $100,000 from Buckley's speedway companies in a series of fraudulent transactions.
Court documents obtained by the Herald show the money was deposited into bank accounts linked to a fast food business and a rich Australian businessman.
Mounting debt and the impending loss of his Glendene house pushed Drever to breaking point, Buckley tells the Herald.
"He panicked. That sent him off the rails completely.
"He thought he could stall losing his house by trying to pinch some money off me, but he couldn't pinch it fast enough."
Buckley told police the stolen cash "hurt me financially". He believes Drever's dishonesty ultimately cost him his speedway licence, which he held for nearly two decades, but was not renewed the following year.
Drever's offending came to light within months and an emergency board meeting was called to present Buckley with irrefutable evidence of fraud.
Despite the evidence, an insider tells the Herald it took several hours before Buckley agreed to call in the police.
Drever, the former "voice of speedway" announcer was charged in early 2020.
The Herald has been fighting to name Drever, who was granted interim suppression while his case dragged through the courts - at times delayed due to him claiming to have contracted Covid.
Last year, a judge warned Drever to expect time behind bars should he plead guilty to two sets of dishonesty charges relating to Auckland Speedway and the Avondale Bowling Club case.
And on Friday morning, Drever finally admitted his offending, lost suppression and was sentenced to two years and two months in jail.
Buckley's victim impact statement makes for heartbreaking reading.
He says Drever offered to work for free due to his bankruptcy conditions. Buckley checked regularly that Drever was doing okay financially "and he assured me he was".
He kept an eye on Drever but, with 350 staff to oversee, trust was an important commodity.
Given their relationship and the promises they had made, Drever's breach of trust was all the more painful.
"I feel like people will look at me in this situation and point the finger at me for not dotting my I's and crossing my T's, but I can't be across everything all of the time," Buckley wrote.
"I trusted Aaron and I did not think he would do this to me.
"I am sad about the relationship that I have lost with Aaron and sad that he has done this to me and my family."
Asked if he thought Drever should be sent to prison, Buckley tells the Herald "someone's got to teach him a lesson".
The sad irony is that Drever is a talented and charismatic individual, Buckley says.
"He's a salesman. He's an auctioneer and a good one. And that's what they're like. He is clever."
Though the pair's relationship is now destroyed, they came face to face during a restorative justice meeting ahead of the sentencing.
"He tried to apologise to me but I said, 'The only thing you're sorry about is getting caught'."
Arthur "Pat" Bell is another man ruing his decision to trust Aaron Drever.
In 2016, Bell was president of Avondale Bowling Club. The club had been badly run and was on the brink of financial collapse.
The precarious financial position was discussed during an annual general meeting which Drever, a club member, attended.
A decision was made to sell the club's "top bowling green" - a 1600sq m parcel of land which borders Great North Rd.
Bell knew Drever had expert knowledge in property. He had, after all, been a successful real estate agent, selling hundreds of homes and raking in millions of dollars in commission.
However, at the time, Drever had surrendered his licence due to pending disciplinary action which would ultimately see him struck off for repeated professional misconduct after notching up a record 12 adverse findings.
Bell counted Drever as a friend and the club agreed to consult him about the potential sale, telling Drever they hoped to get between $700,000 and $1 million for the land.
And though the plot had a rateable value of $710,000, Drever said it was worth no more than $300,000 due to "access problems".
Within days he announced he'd found a buyer and presented the club with a sale and purchase agreement for $330,000.
Bell tells the Herald he knew it was worth more. But desperate for income, the cash-strapped club's board agreed to the deal and signed the contract.
Unbeknown to the club, Drever had been scheming on how to line his own pockets.
A summary of facts shows Drever had already approached his aunt Beverley Ellen Spain and told her he wanted to set up a company to purchase the bowling club land in her name.
She agreed to help.
On November 23, 2016, Drever and Spain met with Drever's West Auckland lawyer and created a company called Avondale Bowling Club Limited, with Spain appointed as director, but which he had ultimate control over.
Drever then drafted the sale and purchase agreement between vendor, Avondale Bowling Club Incorporated, and purchaser, Avondale Bowling Club Limited, for $330,000.
Bell and two other board members - including Drever's former girlfriend Rachel Benge - signed on behalf of the club. It is not known who signed on behalf of the purchaser but the signature did not match Spain's.
Two days later Drever drafted a second sale and purchase agreement between Avondale Bowling Club Limited - Spain's company - and 88 Cents Limited - a company owned by property developer Jonathan Michell, who Drever had done previous deals with.
The purchase price was $825,000.
Both transactions settled at precisely 2.07pm on the same day - December 6.
Spain was later removed as a director of the intermediary company and replaced by Drever, according to Companies Office records.
Bell says Drever later tried to charge a "professional advice" fee for his assistance but the bowling club refused to pay.
"I said, 'Go f*** yourself'."
Speaking after he was charged in 2019, Drever told the Herald he deliberately tried to hide his name from property records to prevent the Herald learning of his windfall.
"I had previously had a series of stories published in the newspaper and I knew that if my name was on the paperwork the Herald would do a story complaining about the profit I had made."
He said he'd come up with a "clever idea" to increase the site's value and was only guilty of making a "reasonable profit".
"If making a reasonable profit on a deal is a crime, most of the New Zealand rich list are in some serious trouble."
News of Drever's ruse eventually filtered back to the duped club.
Bell, who had trusted Drever, says he was shocked, disappointed and "really pissed off".
He's been deeply affected by Drever's devious actions, which put him under considerable scrutiny and pressure.
Bell faced judicial proceedings from Bowls Auckland in the aftermath of the sale, and says he was also investigated by police and the Serious Fraud Office who suspected he was in cahoots with Drever on the deal.
"People out there think that Aaron gave me a backhander.
"It's caused me a lot of problems. It's hurt my kids and my partner."
Drever wrote Bell a letter of apology.
Asked if he believed it was genuine, Bell says: "I can't answer that. The only person who knows if that is genuine is Aaron Drever."
And despite the hurt and reputational damage he has suffered, Bell says he doesn't hate Drever and can't see the sense in sending him to jail.
"Is jail going to make a difference? He's like a light switch. One minute he's good and one minute he's bad. I think he needs help.
"The man can talk. If you've got $5 left in your pocket he will talk you out of $5."
Drever pleaded guilty to a charge of obtaining by deception, which carried a maximum penalty of seven years' imprisonment.
He admitted failing to disclose his close personal relationship with Spain, the fact he would personally benefit from the deal, or that he knew the property was worth far more than the initial $330,000 purchase price.
He was sentenced today jointly for both the speedway deception and the Avondale Bowling Club offending.
Drever has since been permanently banned from any bowling club membership or advisory role, while Bell and his fellow board members were suspended indefinitely from any governance positions.
The Avondale club has since closed down.
And though the criminal proceedings are now at an end, Drever could yet face further action in connection with the matter.
The Real Estate Authority is now assessing whether to charge him with unlicensed trading.
Drever, who has recently been running singles night events at the Point Chevalier RSA and doing voluntary work, did eventually lose his Glendene house.
It's understood Drever and another former girlfriend continued to live there until being evicted as "squatters" following a 2020 Tenancy Tribunal ruling.
Drever - who a judge last month described as "not the most honest person in the world" - told the Herald he is writing a book that will lift the lid on his former colleagues in the real estate industry, many of whom have their own skeletons.
When this reporter said he'd be interested to read the book, Drever replied, "You're in it."
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