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Home / New Zealand

Teen soon to be father-of-four jailed for $80k Facebook marketplace frauds

Belinda Feek
By Belinda Feek
Open Justice multimedia journalist, Waikato·NZ Herald·
20 Dec, 2022 05:00 AM4 mins to read

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Monaro Kerr-Wilson was jailed but given leave to apply for home detention for his offending that stretched more than a year. Photo / AP

Monaro Kerr-Wilson was jailed but given leave to apply for home detention for his offending that stretched more than a year. Photo / AP

An 18-year-old, soon to be father to a fourth child, swindled people of about $80,000 off Facebook marketplace to pay back his drug debt to gangs.

Monaro Kerr-Wilson’s desperation saw him “buying” expensive items – including a $41,000 Harley Davidson – showing proof by using a fake screenshot from his account that the money had gone through.

It never did.

The majority of the 15 offences he was sentenced for in the Hamilton District Court today were for obtaining by deception over more than a year and only came to a stop once he was put in custody in an adult prison earlier this year.

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Judge Brett Crowley estimated the frauds totalled between $70,000 and $80,000.

The remainder of the items were mainly motorbikes, priced between $8000 and $10,000, along with a television in March this year worth $3200.

Kerr-Wilson had offered to pay the money back to his victims but Judge Crowley said that was simply giving his victims “false hope”.

“That is a pretty empty thing for you to say. I doubt you will be paying anyone for anything and even if you wanted to you can’t.

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“It remains to be seen when you are going to stop acting in this way.

“There’s no indication that you are going to. Time will tell.”

Kerr-Wilson’s counsel, Sacha Nepe, said he had endured a hard life for someone so young.

“This is a young man who started using alcohol at the age of 10.

“At 14, his partner introduced him to methamphetamine and he has really struggled with a methamphetamine addiction and I say that’s been a background to the majority of this offending.”

At the time, Kerr-Wilson owed money to gangs for P he had bought and was “panicking about how he was going to pay for it”.

He had told a pre-sentence report writer how he was trying to feed his family and provide for them.

“While he is only 18, he is already the father to three children. He and his partner ... are expecting their fourth child next month so it’s a very sorry background in the circumstances for this young man.”

He had also grown up in a family where drug and alcohol use, along with gang culture, was rife, and was put into the care of the state aged 6.

“Unsurprisingly Monaro goes from state care ... to now appearing for sentence for the first time in the district court.”

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Kerr-Wilson was also remorseful and had written a letter to the judge.

The approximate 16 weeks awaiting sentencing in custody had been a “very sobering experience” for him, she said.

Kerr-Wilson’s mother was also given the opportunity to address the court.

“I would like to apologise to my son for the upbringing that I’ve done for him.

“If I could take it all away I would go to jail for him.

“I love you, my son, I’m sorry,” she said, choking back tears.

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In sentencing Kerr-Wilson, Judge Crowley said the money he had taken from people could have been important for them, or for someone that was in desperate circumstances, and he “just ripped them off because you wanted some drugs”.

“If you do that once or twice ... that could be impulsive, but if you continue to do that for over a year, on a very, very regular basis, you have had time to think about it, what the loss and harm, damage you are causing to these people.

“You targeted very high-value goods because you wanted to obtain the most money you could by deceiving people in this way, knowing that you were never going to be able to repay them and in my view, you never had any intention to.”

After taking a start point of two years and three months’ jail, he added a three-month uplift for additional charges of unlawful carrying of an imitation firearm and threatening to kill during an argument.

After applying around 45% worth of discounts, he came to 16 and a half months’ prison.

However, given Kerr-Wilson’s age and other personal factors, he granted leave for him to apply for home detention.

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He was also disqualified from driving for six months on a charge of driving while suspended.

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