Jail sentence for ‘dying child’ con
Aformer Australian television presenter who fabricated a “cruel lie” around a dying child to con Trade Me buyers out of $35,000 has been sentenced to jail.
Simone Anne Wright, who also used the last names Williams and Smith, lied about having a terminally ill son being cared for at Auckland’s Starship hospital to sell motorbikes, a spa bath and other items worth thousands of dollars on Trade Me.
She denied the charges, saying she had nothing to do with the fake trades and blaming her former husband Paul James Bennett.
Wright claimed Bennett controlled everything about the offending, but after a judge-alone trial in the Christchurch District Court she was found guilty on all seven charges of obtaining by deception.
Last month Bennett was jailed for more than three years after admitting his role in the offending.
Wright was sentenced yesterday by Judge Paul Kellar.
The court heard the offending took a financial and emotional toll on “hardworking people”.
“The cruel lie that was a central part of this fraud . . . about the sick son . . . really was used to engender these victims’ trust and sympathy,” said Crown prosecutor Penny Brown.
Defence lawyer Elizabeth Bulger reminded the court that Bennett was the “mastermind of this total fraud”.
“Ms Wright does not accept your verdict but she accepts she has to be sentenced on your findings,” she said.
Judge Kellar said an aggravating factor was the number of victims involved and how much they paid Wright and Bennett.
“The second and very significant factor is the harm to the victims ... in the one case at the time of the offending the victims were on one wage as the youngest of their two sons had disabilities.
“They saved very hard to purchase the motorbike for the older son and it came as an absolute shock when it never arrived and they realised they had been conned.
“One of the other victims sought to purchase a spa with money that had been left to her from her mother’s recent death . . . the money meant a lot to her and the fraud on them has had a profound effect.”
Judge Kellar said the offending was “brazen, callous and cynical” and the motivation was “nothing more than greed”.
The judge agreed Bennett was the mastermind and sentenced Wright to a total of one year and five months with six months of post-release conditions and further special conditions.
Both Wright and Bennett were arrested as the pair sailed into Sydney Harbour after crossing the Tasman Sea from Northland on a crippled yacht in February 2015.