Woman jailed for pretending to be a lawyer in a relationship split

Kalpana Narayan was sentenced at the Manukau District Court. Photo / Natalie Slade

A woman who conned a man going through a relationship split for thousands of dollars by pretending to be a lawyer has been jailed.

Kalpana Narayan was sentenced to two years and four months' imprisonment for a string of theft and dishonesty charges.

Manukau District Court sentencing judge Sharon McAuslan said Narayan preyed on people who tried to help her, including families and friends, many of whom were gullible and vulnerable.

According to the sentencing notes, Narayan told a man having problems with an ex-girlfriend she was a lawyer and would be able to help him, starting with a summons for her to appear in court. Narayan was not a lawyer and never had been.

The man transferred a filing fee of $195 and a further $220 to serve a trespass notice into Narayan's bank account.

Narayan told the man the summons had been served and messaged him saying an assault charge had been filed by the woman against him and the woman was seeking mental and physical compensation.

When told a court date was coming up on the assault charge, the man was given two options, paying a bond of $6650 or reporting to the police and handing himself in to be put in custody.

The man did not want to be placed in custody and paid $6650 into Narayan's bank account.

When Narayan messaged the man, saying she new the judge personally and he would need to pay the court $15,000 to show he accepted the assault charge, he suspected something was not right.

The man phoned the law firm that Narayan said she worked for and was told she did not work for them. He then phoned the court and his ex-girlfriend and found out no charge had been laid against him.

Narayan said she had a lot of debt to pay back after a failed marriage and that was what the money was for.

Judge McAuslan said the victim impact statements made very distressing reading.

"The breach of trust is just appalling and many of these victims were known to you so the upset and loss is compounded by this terrible feeling of abuse of trust."

The sentencing occurred in February this year.