Auckland mortgage fraud arrest at International Airport

Wednesday 8th June 2016

A man charged in connection with an alleged mortgage fraud in Auckland in the run-up to the global financial crisis has been arrested at the city's International airport.

Simon Lawrence Turnbull, 43, is charged with nine counts of dishonestly taking or using a document, nineteen counts of obtaining by deception or causing loss by deception and ten counts of using forged documents.

The Serious Fraud Office claims Turnbull was involved in a fraud in which false loan applications were submitted to a funds management company to buy 19 properties in and around Auckland between September 2006 and February 2007.

Property developer Malcolm Mayer was sentenced to six years in prison for his role in the fraud, valued at $47 million, in February 2014. An appeal by Mayer failed last month.

Turnbull was due in court in November 2014 but failed to appear. He was arrested at Auckland International Airport after arriving in New Zealand. In the course of Mayer's two trials, prosecutors received tip-offs that Turnbull was in Singapore, London and Texas.

Turnbull is next due to appear before the Auckland District Court on August 4.

BusinessDesk.co.nz

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