Fraudster fights sentence yet again
One of New Zealand’s worst fraudsters is trying to convince the Court of Appeal that a mistake was made in his sentencing, which has affected his parole chances.
Loizos Michaels was sentenced to eight years’ jail in 2012 on 30 charges of obtaining by deception in 2007 and 2008, involving more than $3 million. No money was recovered.
He had dozens of victims, taking their cash and ‘‘bleeding them dry’’, as Court of Appeal president Justice Stephen Kos described it.
Michaels has already had an appeal against his conviction and sentence dismissed, but has asked the Court of Appeal to hear another sentence appeal.
His lawyer Chris Tennet told the court yesterday that the way the minimum period of imprisonment of three years and nine months was worded meant that Michaels was considered for parole six months later than he should have been.
Michaels has been before the board three times since becoming eligible for parole and has been refused. He is next due to be considered for parole in March 2018.
When he was released, he would be returned to Australia, where he came from and where he also had fraud convictions.
If the mistake that Tennet said was made was corrected, Michaels would get a parole hearing several months earlier.
But Justice Kos said given the gross deception Michaels practised and the effect it had on his victims, the court would not ‘‘fiddle’’ with the sentence. Re-opening the sentence would put the minimum period of imprisonment up for grabs again too, and the net effect might not be a reduction, he said.
But Tennet said a six months difference would not be fiddling.
The three Court of Appeal judges reserved their decision. A carnivorous Australian fugitive has been found living by Lake Waiwiri, in Horowhenua. Water dragons are imported from Australia for the pet trade and the Department of Conservation believes the juvenile lizard was released or escaped from captivity. DOC ranger Sue Moore said water dragons were wary of people and catching the Horowhenua reptile was challenging. ‘‘They drop into the water where they can remain for up to an hour, or disappear into vegetation.’’ Pets aren’t equipped to survive in the wild and may spread diseases and prey on native plants and animals, she said. The water dragon was taken in by a local vet, who had rehomed it.
- Photo: Michael Kean