Jail term no joke for trickster

A recidivist conman has been labelled a ‘‘confidence trickster’’ by a judge, after claiming his exwife would front up with more than $16,000 to repay his latest victims.

The judge refused to believe Raymond Patrick Mullany had money ready to repay his victims, as he had told the same story to police and probation officers without offering any evidence.

Mullany has dozens of convictions for fraud and dishonesty and Judge Lance Rowe sentenced him in the Palmerston North District Court yesterday to 20 months’ jail for 13 more fraud offences.

Defence lawyer Mark Alderdice tried to get the sentencing put off, saying Mullany had told him his ex-wife would give him the money.

But the judge declined that request, quoting a pre-sentence report that described Mullany as ‘‘pathological liar’’ who had an ‘‘inability to be truthful’’ and ‘‘lack of concern for victims’’.

‘‘The remorse you write in your letters to the court are no more than words from you, a man who has used those words to rip people off repeatedly... From what I have read, [Mullany] is a confidence trickster. I don’t believe him.’’

Mullany has a history of using computers to commit fraud. He was described as ‘‘one of New Zealand’s biggest internet fraudsters’’ in 2006 when he was sentenced on 34 fraud charges, many of them relating to Trade Me.

He used the website to sell items to users of the site, but failed to deliver the goods, despite taking the money. He used aliases to hide his tracks.

His modus operandi has not changed much over time, as all but one of the charges he was sentenced for yesterday related to Facebook buy and sell groups.

He offered to sell car parts, but would never deliver after payment, fleecing $7739 from 12 people between October 2016 and March this year.

His final fraud involved him getting $10,500 from a finance company for a woman trying to buy a car. She later decided she did not want the car, but Mullany kept the money, using it to pay debts.

Alderdice said Mullany committed the frauds after going to work for his son’s car sales business. The business was in bad shape.