The conman, the affair and the $3500 blackmail bid

A brazen conman is facing a spell behind bars after being found guilty of blackmailing a woman who he was told was cheating on her estranged husband.

In a rare New Zealand case of blackmail, Puletini Paul Wilson was found guilty in the Auckland High Court on Tuesday last week and remanded in custody until July 20 for sentencing after following through on a plan to fleece a woman who was carrying on an extramarital affair.

The self-styled "private detective" had been told by an associate that the woman - whose name was suppressed by the court - was having an affair. He then confronted the woman at her Papakura home in May last year, demanding she pay him $3500 to destroy the "evidence" he claimed he had in his possession.

Wilson told the woman that he had photographic and video proof of her affair, which led the woman to assume her estranged husband had hired Wilson to uncover her fling with another man so he could use it in any custody battle.

Wilson, a father of seven sons, went along with the charade.

He told the woman her husband had paid him $3500 to spy on her for six months but promised he would destroy the evidence he had if she paid him the same amount.

Worried that she would lose her house and 10-year-old son in a custody battle, the woman agreed to pay the $3500, the court heard.

When initially interviewed by police about why he asked for $3500, Wilson said the sum was "not too big or small".

"I could have got a lot more, I could've said, 'It'll cost you $8000'. She wouldn't have had a choice, she would've had to find that money," Wilson said in a police statement.

The court heard that the woman then withdrew the funds from her bank account and met him at the Gull service station on Roscommon Rd in Manurewa.

She handed the money over, and then Wilson told her to meet him at a hotel if she wanted to watch the 8mm footage.

In the police statement, Wilson said he felt guilty about what had happened. "Not a week goes by when I don't think about it. She's not a gangster or anything," he told police.

However, Wilson was apprehended after the woman's mother cottoned on to the scam and informed police that her daughter was being blackmailed.

In an unusual move, Wilson chose to give evidence at the two-day trial and claimed to never have threatened the woman.

He considered asking for money as "a bribe for information", rather than blackmail.

In his final address to the jury, Crown prosecutor Howard Lawry said the threat was indeed blackmail, whether it was made implicitly or explicitly. "So what if you didn't stand over her and threaten her?

"This man tried to hold something over her, to obtain $3500, to ensure it didn't come out. That's blackmail."

The jury took three hours to reach a guilty verdict.

Wilson has 35 previous convictions for dishonesty.