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Deo Narayan’s appeal was dismissed after a hearing on March 3.
A repeat fraudster who abused the trust of a church and spent his earnings on the TAB received his appeal against his sentence.
The Tokelau Congregational Christian Church thought Deo Narayan was the answer to their prayers when they met with their leaders in 2015.
He claimed to be a well-connected and skilled builder who could solve the church’s problems, after the Auckland Council said its operations on a house in Otara required a consent of resources.
In reality, Narayan was a beneficiary and an undone bankruptcy.
He defrauded the church of over $ 50,000 and spent the money himself, including regular payments to his TAB gambling account.
The details of his crime have come to light through a sentence handed down by Judge Simon Moore after a Court of Appeal hearing before Judge Moore, Judge Christine French and Judge Robert Dobson on March 3.
Things
Judge Simon Moore delivered the judgment of the Court of Appeals in April. Lawrence Smith / file
On October 8, 2019, Narayan was sentenced by Judge Jonathan Moses in the Manukau District Court to 11 months of house arrest.
His sentence came six months after a trial in which a jury found him guilty on seven counts of obtaining a monetary advantage by deception and without claim of law.
Narayan, 66, appealed the sentence, alleging that he was not given sufficient credit for the fact that he paid the money he received fraudulently.
The Court of Appeal ruling said the reimbursement was made long after Narayan was charged and shortly before his trial.
In any event, the return of the funds was inevitable, given his defense that he had received the money in good faith and that others were responsible for failure to complete the required work.
“If the funds had not been returned, the repair orders would have followed.”
The repayment was made without taking into account accrued interest and without remorse, according to the judgment.
He also noted that Judge Moses did not make a modest elevation to Narayan’s sentence despite his previous nine convictions, including four for fraud.
While the crime occurred nearly two decades after his most recent fraud, in the interim he was involved in a civil dispute over the purchase of a house described by a district court judge as a “cynical scam of an elderly man and his wife, both of whom were very ill at the time. “
“This indicates that his pattern of dishonest behavior was ongoing,” the ruling said.
Judge Moses also gave a 20 percent discount to acknowledge Narayan’s poor health and reimbursement, which the Court of Appeals said could be considered generous in the circumstances.
The appeal was dismissed.
In its impact statement to the victim cited in the judgment, the church said that, while relieved that the funds had been reimbursed, Narayan had taken advantage of its trustworthy nature.
“Church members had viewed it as an answer to their prayers.
“But it betrayed his trust and caused ‘deep wounds within the church.'”
