Jail for engineer forger
The engineer whose fraudulent sign-offs cast a shadow over thousands of buildings across the length of New Zealand has been sentenced to four years and six months in prison.
Jonathan Beau Hall, 47, was sentenced at Rotorua District Court yesterday after earlier admitting to 112 charges of fraud.
The Waikato Times first broke news of the sign-off scandal back in June last year, reporting hundreds of homes in Waikato, Bay of Plenty and the central North Island had been caught up in an investigation into whether their engineering designs were signed off inappropriately.
Hall - the director of Kodiak Consulting Ltd - had been using the identities of more qualified colleagues to sign off building consent documents. Engineering New Zealand estimates more than 1000 homes were affected and that his offending was “alarming in its magnitude”.
The court heard a victim impact statement from University of Waikato School of Engineering senior lecturer Dr Martin Atkins.
He told the court Hall’s fraudulent behaviour had cost him $40,000, and taken a toll on his and his family’s mental and emotional health.
He also said that he taught ethics as part of his engineering course, and that Hall’s actions “rank among the most egregious examples of professional misconduct I have seen”.
“We strongly urge the imposition of a custodial sentence ... send a clear message to others,” he said.
David Southey, Taupō District Council building manager, also read a victim impact statement, telling the court Hall’s fraud had cost the council more than $500,000 in unbudgeted costs.
The bill for that, he said, would be “ultimately passed onto the ratepayer”.
Crown prosecutor Amanda Gordon told the court Hall forged 1927 documents in total, and that “we don’t actually know what the true number of victims are in this case”.
She also said that due to Hall’s corner-cutting, he developed a reputation for fast work, which in turn drew in new customers.
“Getting more work and making more money has to be part of the motivation,” Gordon said.
She also revealed that of the more than $500,000 Hall pocketed from his frauds, he donated $300,000 to charities. “A self-serving process, the benefit was entirely for Mr Hall.” Gordon also said the victims included the engineers whose signatures Hall forged, telling the court one “has now left New Zealand because of the constant barrage he was getting”.
“The loss to him personally has been more than $300,000.”
Hall’s lawyer, Matthew Ward-johnson, said he wanted to acknowledge Hall’s support in court, “one of them being his pastor”.
It was also revealed he gave $270,000 to his church.
“His remorse is genuine,” said Ward-johnson, who said his client felt deep shame about his offending.
He also said the fact he donated significant sums to charities was inconsistent with greed, and denied the offending involved any sophistication, saying it was “the simple copy and paste of signatures”.
Gordon told the court the start point for Hall’s offending should be 10 years’ imprisonment, while Ward-johnson suggested three-and-a-half years - which would open up the possibility of a non-custodial sentence.
Judge Greg Hollister-jones said that in the wake of Hall’s offending “a significant amount of buildings have been identified as unsafe”.
Hundreds of projects had had to be reviewed over safety concerns. In Taupō alone, 650 building consents had been affected.
“The scale of your offending is huge,” he said.
“The largest-scale fraud I am aware of.” The sheer extent of Hall’s offending was also made clear by the number of district councils that filed victim impact reports.
Councils stretching from Southland to the Far North filed reports, and so many wanted to be heard that his original sentencing date of March 22 had to be postponed.
In total his offending spanned five years and seven months, starting in November 2017.
One victim Hall’s offending had earlier told the Waikato Times they now faced a delayed retirement and a bill of $20,000 “minimum”.
They said they first became aware of the issue in September last year, when their council got in touch.
They said they were told their property was among those “this so-called engineer signed off”.
“We’re pretty disappointed and upset, in fact I’m quite angry,” they said.
“This has caused so much stress for us, sleepless nights and waiting to get another engineer’s decision on our house.”
According to the police summary of facts, Hall invoiced a total of $2,422,511 across all the projects concerned.
Of that, he’s estimated to have gained $558,511 by not using - or paying - the misrepresented Chartered Professional Engineer.
According to a victim impact statement, from Engineering New Zealand chief executive Richard Templer, Hall’s offending created an extensive range of concerns “from potentially minor or administrative concerns to more serious concerns such as the robustness of a building’s foundations”.
“Identifying the unique ramifications on each property will continue to occupy many councils and engineers for some time yet, even before considering remediation.”
Templer also said it was a concern that Hall’s offending had harmed trust and confidence in the engineering profession and the building consent system.
“The scale of Mr Hall’s offending and resulting media coverage meant that there was wide awareness of his actions and resulting risks and impacts,” Templer said.
“It would not be unreasonable to assume that this widespread awareness of Mr Hall’s actions raised legitimate concerns about public safety ... As an organisation that functions to regulate chartered professional engineers and its members, we feel Mr Hall’s conduct of forgery seriously impacted the engineering profession and Engineering New Zealand.”
The organisation hoped Hall “can reflect and learn from his actions, from what became and continues to be a serious, nationwide issue”.
Hall was also ordered to pay reparation of just over $85,000 to Engineering New Zealand, to be held in trust for distribution to his victims.