Jailed ‘armed maniac’ facing bankruptcy
A convicted fraudster who once called Sir Paul Holmes’ radio show threatening to kill himself and saying he was an ‘‘armed maniac’’ is facing bankruptcy from behind bars.
John Grant Fagan, 57, is about halfway through a prison term for a multimillion-dollar fraud, plus escaping custody and kidnapping his wife.
The Inland Revenue Department served Fagan his bankruptcy documents in Rimutaka prison late last year, but November’s Kaikoura earthquake delayed matters until now.
In the High Court at Wellington yesterday, his lawyer Daniel Vincent asked for an adjournment to allow Fagan to file an affidavit.
Associate Judge Warwick Smith granted the adjournment until April 4.
Fagan’s most infamous offending happened in 1996, when he worked as finance manager at Northcote College on Auckland’s North Shore.
He defrauded the school of more than $1 million, but attempted to evade police when the offending came to light.
Fagan fired a gun above a 16-year-old girl at the school before going on the run, eventually calling Holmes’ radio show, threatening to kill himself and saying he was an ‘‘armed maniac’’.
The Palmerston North man gave himself up and was jailed for five years.
The fraud Fagan was jailed for in 2014 happened after he become involved in a company called Remote Management Systems, a startup which claimed its technology made broadband internet run faster.
The company gained a contract with Telecom, but it pulled out of the deal and other telecommunications firms would not be associated with one involving Fagan.
In 2013, he pleaded guilty to 15 charges of making false statements, forgery and using forged documents that overstated the value of the business.
The Serious Fraud Office said the charges related to $1.2 million of investment and attempts to gain another $4.6m for ‘‘a number of’’ companies.
A month after he was jailed, Fagan escaped from a supervised prison work group and, armed with a machete, confronted his wife, who had told him she was leaving him.
She fled unharmed and Fagan was later found near the Manawatu River. He was jailed for an extra two years and could be in prison until October 2019.
Fagan was last year denied an early release by the Parole Board.