Conman took women’s money
William Harding told his fiancee he was popping out to the dairy.
But the ageing conman was actually abandoning her, leaving her with thousands of dollars of debt, just like the other women he had charmed, ripped off and discarded. Harding marked his 78th birthday in prison on Monday, where he is awaiting sentencing in August on multiple fraud charges.
The full extent of his frauds can now be revealed, after Stuff was granted permission to view court documents.
The police summaries paint a picture of Harding as a man with a penchant for taking care of himself by deceiving elderly women.
Two fraud charges related to two women with whom he developed relationships in 2015.
Neither of the women knew about the other but considered Harding to be a good friend, agreeing to lend him money.
He said he had inherited property from a recently-deceased brother but needed money to ship the property from Dunedin to Whanganui before selling it.
The women gave him a total of $9800 in mid-2015, on the basis Harding would pay it all back.
But there was no dead brother, no property to be shipped, and he paid back only $250 to one of his victims. He instead used the money to purchase jewellery for a different woman.
He was still in Whanganui in 2016 and engaged to be married when he committed his next fraud – against his fiancee.
The court documents did not make it clear if his fiancee was the woman he purchased jewellery for.
He and his fiancee were living with one of her children at a property that had been put on the market. Harding announced he was going to buy a house for he and his bride-to-be.
He said a sibling had died, leaving him an inheritance to finance the purchase.
The real estate agent the couple dealt with knew Harding was providing all the money, so left the fiancee’s name off the paperwork.
But when Harding went to sign the sale and purchase agreement in January 2016, he wanted his fiancee’s name on the paperwork because they were getting married. The real estate agent found this odd, saying the fiancee had no money to contribute to the purchase. The fiancee also had her reservations but signed after Harding insisted.
A deposit had to be paid by February 2, 2016, and the remainder a week later.
On the day the deposit was due, Harding said he was going to the dairy. He never returned, leaving his fiancee responsible for the purchase because she had signed the agreement.
She had to pay $6000 to break the agreement and spent another $1800 on lawyers’ fees.
Harding then wiggled his way into a Paraparaumu woman’s home, staying for six weeks after saying his house had been flooded. He was eventually found in Levin.
When police caught up with Harding, he admitted everything was a lie.