Property conman ‘delusional’

It’s a property most people in New Zealand could only dream of buying.

The palatial mansion, set on four hectares of rural Christchurch land, has six bedrooms, four bathrooms, marble flooring and an indoor swimming pool. It looks out over a lake and a tightly cropped lawn not dissimilar to a golf course fairway.

There was plenty of interest in the ‘‘private oasis’’, which had a 2016 rateable value of nearly $3 million, when it was listed in August last year. It was to be sold at auction the following month.

The owners were caught a little off-guard when smoothtalking entrepreneur Malcolm Shearer made an unconditional $2.65m offer that they couldn’t refuse.

However, despite being full of promises, Shearer never fronted with the deposit, and defaulted on the deal. The frustrated owners lost thousands of dollars in marketing and legal fees.

They had no idea Shearer was a fraudster and failed businessman, who had left a trail of unhappy people with losses totalling more than $1m.

He was adjudged bankrupt for the second time within months of defaulting on the property deal.

‘‘Malcolm Shearer . . . deserves to be in prison. He caused us a huge amount of anguish and stress. He appears plausible but he’s a devious crook,’’ one of the owners, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said.

Stuff has learned that Shearer has a history of making offers on upmarket homes in Canterbury that he can’t afford.

In late 2017, he put pen to paper on a $1.1m deal involving a property on Banks Peninsula. That sale also fell through.

‘‘He had no capacity to complete it . . . he was just in Disneyland,’’ said the real estate agent, who would not be named.

‘‘I think he’s delusional. It’s like it’s a game to him.’’

Harcourts recently sent an alert to branches across Canterbury warning agents to be wary of Shearer.

‘‘We’ve had numerous dealings with him over the years and they’ve never ended well,’’ said Harcourts South Island regional manager Hayden Broadbelt.

He would not discuss details of specific incidents but said Shearer’s conduct was ‘‘disgraceful’’ and had ‘‘caused unnecessary . . . anguish to a lot of our clients’’.

Shearer declined to comment when contacted yesterday.

Last week at Christchurch District Court, he was sentenced to 10 months of home detention after pleading guilty to a charge of obtaining by deception.

Stuff has since been contacted by numerous other people who claim to have been ripped off by Shearer. Their losses amount to more than $1.2m.

At least one of them has spoken to police and is also planning to lodge a fraud complaint against Shearer.

Insolvency records show that Shearer was first bankrupted in 2008.

‘‘He caused us a huge amount of anguish and stress.’’ Property owner