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Home / New Zealand

Upper Hutt fraudster Hayden Rae Gobey steals police identity

Melissa Nightingale
By Melissa Nightingale
Senior Reporter, NZ Herald - Wellington·NZ Herald·
16 Nov, 2017 01:04 AM4 mins to read

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Hayden Gobey pleaded guilty this week to numerous dishonesty charges. Photo/file

Hayden Gobey pleaded guilty this week to numerous dishonesty charges. Photo/file

An Upper Hutt man who stole a police officer's identity to scam people on Facebook owes tens of thousands of dollars to numerous victims for a range of offences.

Hayden Rae Gobey, 24, also posed as a bank staff member to gain access to a victim's accounts, before going on a $36,000 one-day spending spree around Wellington.

Gobey pleaded guilty in the Hutt Valley District Court this week to a number of charges relating to theft, dishonestly obtaining money, impersonating police, and accessing computer systems for dishonest purposes.

He originally faced at least 29 charges, but some were withdrawn and others changed to representative charges.

The theft of a police officer's identity happened when Gobey used a Facebook account under a fake name to contact two users who were selling cellphones in May this year.

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He asked them to provide identification in case there were any issues with the purchases.

One of the users, a serving police officer, sent him a photo of his driver's licence and his New Zealand Police Identification Card, the summary of facts said.

The next day, Gobey set up a Facebook account under the officer's name and advertised a MacBook Pro laptop for sale, offering it for $1500.

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He told a potential buyer he was a police officer in Whitianga, and sent copies of the ID photos, saying "I am a new zealand police officer I'm hardley about to sell you something dodgey mate (sic)."

The buyer became suspicious and reported Gobey to Netsafe, as well as contacting police on Facebook.

Another person wanting to buy a cellphone from Gobey's fake account contacted the police officer by his police email to double check it was not a scam, and was told the ID card and driver's licence were being used by someone without authority.

Several people fell victim to the fake account, transferring Gobey thousands of dollars and never receiving any goods.

In June Gobey phoned a woman, telling her he was employed by ANZ Security and that ANZ had noticed suspicious activity on her bank account. Believing he was from ANZ, she gave him her date of birth, address, previous address, and information on regular payments made on her account.

Gobey then used the information to impersonate the woman and gain control over four bank accounts, including her uncle's, which she was a named authoriser of.

Using her details the following day, he made 31 purchases around the Wellington region, removing a total of $36,112.49 from the accounts.

Gobey also admitted altering a doctor's script to make the prescription for medication much higher than the doctor had actually prescribed.

The doctor told him the medication was the type that is often abused by drug addicts and that it would have a street value.

In March, Gobey emailed the prescription script to two pharmacies in Masterton. Both noticed the abnormalities in the prescription and contacted police.

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When Gobey arrived to pick up the prescription he was arrested.

He pleaded guilty on Tuesday to representative charges of accessing a computer system for a dishonest purpose, intent to do the same, impersonating police, dishonestly using documents, as well as charges of obtaining by deception, causing loss by deception, theft, using a document for pecuniary advantage, and driving without a licence.

His offending, which included using a credit card that didn't belong to him, left at least 13 victims - people and businesses - more than $60,000 out of pocket.

The judge at the Hutt Valley Court this week said any hope of reparation being paid was "unrealistic".

He ordered a pre-sentence report which included a look at home detention, though he said the chances of Gobey receiving a home detention sentence were "about 1 per cent, to put it bluntly".

He remanded him to January 19 for sentencing.

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