Victims fleeced on Facebook

A repeat con-artist fleeced people including a terminally ill man - out of $6000 through fake deals she struck on Facebook.

Candis Sahn Weko’s modus operandi involved setting up fake Facebook profiles using the names of people she had found from ‘Buy and Sell’ community pages on the social media site.

The 29-year-old would list a range of items, all non-existent, for sale and at a price which was well below the market value.

Deals were struck between Weko and her victims, who would then deposit the money into her bank account. Once the money came through, Weko went walkabout, ceasing all contact with the unsuspecting victims.

Some of the fake deals struck between February and August last year involved a $50 washing machine, $600 for four tickets to a Cat Stevens concert and $1750 for a lease to a Waikato property.

All up, her scam netted Weko $6269 in cash.

The Waitara woman previously pleaded guilty to 17 dishonesty charges, including a representative charge of accessing a computer for dishonest purposes and multiple counts of obtains by deception.

Lawyer Josie Mooney said Weko resorted to the criminal offending as she had been stretched financially. The New Plymouth District Court also heard how Weko had been previously convicted of dishonesty and was paying back reparation owed to victims of that offending at a rate of $20 a week.

He said it was ‘‘really upsetting’’ to read the victim impact statements. He said one, a mother of two young children, had organised to buy firewood Weko had advertised on Facebook for sale.

She deposited $445, plus a delivery fee of $20, in Weko’s account but the wood never materialised. Judge Sygrove said without the firewood, the woman’s house was so cold that the children had to wear thermals and go to bed with extra blankets and hot water bottles.

Another victim Weko ripped off, to the tune of $175, had terminal prostate cancer.

Weko was sentenced to six months’ community detention, along with a 18 month term of intensive supervision.