Serial conman Whaiora Galvin targeted Auckland, Bay of Plenty businesses

Galvin and his lawyer then asked to abandon the sentencing hearing so he could apply for admission into the Alcohol and Other Drug Treatment Court. Judge Sinclair allowed it.

And that is where Galvin spent the next three years.

The specialist court, established on a trial basis in 2012 and made permanent in 2019, has boasted a high success rate over the years with defendants who voluntarily submit to intensive rehabilitation programmes instead of prison time.

Galvin was on the verge of “graduating” from the court when he was expelled in August because of a positive drug test, resulting in him appearing before Judge Sinclair again this month for the resumption of a hearing that had started three years earlier.

But his situation was now quite different thanks in part to the tools he had picked up through the drug court, even if he did have a relapse, the judge said. For one thing, he hasn’t reoffended for years.

“Importantly, you have made considerable efforts to address this issue,” she said, noting that Galvin participated in multiple residential and outpatient drug treatment programmes, as well as peer support groups, one-on-one counselling and completed nearly 200 hours of community service.

“Although you were exited from the court, it appears you demonstrated a strong motivation to address your substance use. Three years is no mean feat.”

Cars, watches and Nintendos

Galvin’s nearly two-year crime spree began in March 2021, when he used his insider knowledge as a former sales consultant for Buy Right Cars to target parent company Turners Automotive Group and its suppliers.

The defendant, who was known as Rick or Ricky, convinced Auckland companies to send auto parts to his home, service vehicles and even talked a locksmith into unknowingly breaking into a vehicle for him – all under the belief that they were dealing with Turners, which would pay the invoices. On at least one occasion, he showed up at a victimised business wearing a Turners uniform.

By late 2021 and early 2022, some automotive businesses were starting to catch on that a serial scammer was in their midst, and some of Galvin’s schemes were thwarted.

During that same period, he stole nine vehicles – four of which involved taking vehicles for test drives with fake IDs and not returning them, and other times pretending to be an employee of another car lot. On another occasion, he asked to borrow his aunt’s car and then vanished for four days. When the vehicle was finally returned, it had four new tyres and mags, court documents state.

By mid-2022, Galvin had switched focus to Tauranga and Rotorua, again scamming auto shops but adding grocery and shoe stores to his targets.

In July 2022, he called a Puma outlet store in Papamoa and claimed to be a supplier who had accidentally delivered too many boxes of apparel. He then donned a hi-vis vest and pretended to be a courier, using his phone to pantomime scanning the boxes as he walked out of the store with more than $2500 worth of items.

The following day, he wore one of the stolen Puma hoodies when he filled up his car with petrol at a Z and told the manager he had forgotten his wallet. He gave the employee a stolen driver’s licence, claiming it was him, and promised to return. He didn’t.

Whaiora Galvin pretended to be doctors, police, couriers and car dealership representatives during a prolific period of scamming New Zealand businesses.

He repeated the courier scam at a mall Platypus store the following day, convincing an employee to lend him a trolley as he left with 15 pairs of shoes worth more than $2000. Skechers and Timberland stores were also targeted.

A month after the Puma and Platypus heists, Galvin called up a North Beach store in Tauranga and masqueraded as the retail outlet’s owner. He instructed an employee to pack up all Nixon watches in stock, worth roughly $5000, for urgent courier to the head office because of a recall. He showed up later but fled without the items after an employee grew suspicious.

On the same day, he tried to convince an EB Games employee to hand over the business’ Nintendo Switch consoles because of a recall, but was also unsuccessful.

By October 2022, Galvin was subject to 24-hour house arrest conditions, with an electronically monitored ankle bracelet, when he turned up at a Tauranga Woolworths with a stethoscope around his neck. He told staff he was a doctor shopping for his practice, even though his full trolley included beer and wine. He distracted an employee, claiming to want to buy gift cards for his office, then left the store without having paid for $700 worth of goods.

He repeated the scam twice more, but was stopped the last time when he returned to the same store. He also stole from supermarkets in Rotorua, although without as elaborate a ruse.

He picked up a charge of impersonating a police officer between the date of his guilty pleas and when he was admitted into the drug court in September 2023.

‘Grew up in a gang pad’

Galvin’s list of crimes was so extensive that Judge Ophir Cassidy agreed they would not be read out individually when he pleaded guilty at Waitākere District Court in April 2023.

“You’re going to have to dig deep to get the help you so desperately need,” the judge advised at the time.

At the aborted sentencing hearing months later, his then-lawyer, John Van Der Zanden, presented two certificates from jail, including one praising his attitude and punctuality while working in the Mt Eden Correctional Facility kitchen.

“That’s his personality coming back before the fall,” the lawyer said, describing his client as someone whose father was a Black Power gang leader – he “grew up in a gang pad around violence and drugs” in Rotorua – but overcame that through religion.

Had Galvin been sentenced that day, Judge Sinclair said she likely would have ordered a term of two years and nine months’ imprisonment, taking into account discounts for his guilty pleas and his background.

But as Galvin returned to court earlier this month, the police prosecution and new defence lawyer Sarah Baird agreed that a non-custodial sentence was now the best outcome.

He is employed again in the auto industry and is eager to pay back the $44,395 he still owes his victims, Baird said. At $100 per week, he could pay it off in roughly eight years, she noted, pointing out that her client did not breach bail during his three years in drug court.

The punitive aspect of the sentencing was already met by the 15 months Galvin has now spent in custody, his lawyer argued, suggesting that a sentence of intensive supervision would best suit the circumstances rather than community detention, which includes an overnight curfew.

But the judge said a punitive aspect was still needed given the nature of his crimes, the significant premeditation and his failure to complete drug court.

“You created a number of victims, and I have to consider the effect on those victims,” she said, noting that 49 victims had $307,000 worth of property taken – a portion of which was never recovered.

“This could only be described as large-scale, fraudulent offending.”

Judge Pippa Sinclair said the victims had to be considered. Photo / Sarah Ivey

Small businesses in particular have experienced “enormous financial hardship” in recent years, the judge noted.

“I have no doubt your illegal actions would have exacerbated that hardship,” she said.

She ordered a starting point of four years and three months’ imprisonment but allowed large reductions for his rehabilitation efforts in recent years, his guilty pleas and his background, which included significant childhood trauma and early exposure to drugs that she described as “a blight on your life since the age of 13″.

Galvin had told the judge three years earlier that such behaviour had not always been normal for him. He developed a drug habit after his relationship fell apart and he lost his family, combined with his own car business flailing because of the Covid pandemic.

It “led to what I can only describe as a perfect storm” that “manifested itself in total self-destruction with no fear of consequences”, he explained, describing himself as “incredibly sorry”.

The judge ordered three months of community detention with a 9.30pm curfew, late enough that he can continue to attend group meetings, as well as one year of intensive supervision. She also ordered him to pay $25,000 in restitution, which she considered to be more realistic than the full amount owed.

Craig Kapitan is an Auckland-based journalist covering courts and justice. He joined the Herald in 2021 and has reported on courts since 2002 in three newsrooms in the US and New Zealand.