{"id":106198,"date":"2025-10-29T01:33:08","date_gmt":"2025-10-29T01:33:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/106198\/"},"modified":"2025-10-29T01:33:08","modified_gmt":"2025-10-29T01:33:08","slug":"waikato-concreter-and-fraud-accused-jason-lambert-cleared-of-most-charges","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/106198\/","title":{"rendered":"Waikato concreter and fraud accused Jason Lambert cleared of most charges"},"content":{"rendered":"

Prosecutor Steve Hickey submitted that Lambert accepted the work<\/a> and the money, without any intention of finishing the job.<\/p>\n

That, he said, pointed to a dishonest intent.<\/p>\n

But Lambert\u2019s defence counsel pairing of Kerry Hadaway and Jonathon Myers said their client always had a genuine intention to do the work, entered contracts in good faith, and he kept up communications with those involved.<\/p>\n

They claimed the case was nothing more than a civil dispute.<\/p>\n

After hearing about three weeks\u2019 of evidence, Judge Saunders recently released her reserved decision on the remaining charges.<\/p>\n

She cleared Lambert of 13 charges but found him guilty of five charges, relating to a $5025 deception, in which she determined he had a reckless intent to deceive. <\/p>\n

On three of those occasions, Lambert did no work at all, and two other times he failed to complete the work.<\/p>\n

\u2018An incompetent businessman with good intentions\u2019<\/p>\n

Judge Saunders said there was unchallenged evidence throughout the hearing that Lambert was skilled in concreting, with many complainants confirming he seemed to know what he was doing.<\/p>\n

As for some of his excuses for the delays, which reminded her of the axiomatic \u201ccheque is in the mail\u201d to delay creditors, they did not of themselves indicate guilt.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo, in a case such as this, where I am asked to draw inferences of guilt, I must guard against speculation.<\/p>\n

\u201cNot turning up as promised and providing multiple excuses for not doing so is not enough.\u201d<\/p>\n

She also took into account that Lambert used his real identity, despite using fake IRD and GST numbers, her overall sense was that it did not reflect a premeditated plan to deceive.<\/p>\n

\"JasonJason Mark Lambert pictured in the Hamilton District Court in August. Photo \/ Belinda Feek<\/p>\n

\u201cThere may be other reasons, including inept business practices,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

There was also Covid-19 to take into account, \u201cwhen everything became harder\u201d.<\/p>\n

However, she also took a jibe at the prosecution\u2019s case.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat has frustrated me as this hearing progressed is the lack of [arguably available] evidence that raised more questions than answers.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere was no financial analysis of the relevant bank accounts into which the complainant\u2019s deposits were made.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat happened to that money? I simply do not know.\u201d<\/p>\n

Police identified four bank accounts into which deposits were made, but didn\u2019t find one in Lambert\u2019s name. <\/p>\n

Two had the same last name; one as DP and CE Lambert, the other DP Lambert.<\/p>\n

He also used seven different names, none of which were in the companies register, nor did police find any record of Lambert being a director of a company in New Zealand.<\/p>\n

She also didn\u2019t know the objective value of the work Lambert had completed, nor what else was required to finish it, and at what cost.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf I cannot quantify the value and extent of the work completed by Mr Lambert in each case, how can I conclude it was part of an elaborate ruse on his part and he never intended to complete the job.<\/p>\n

\u201cAn alternative explanation is Mr Lambert is simply an incompetent businessman with good intentions who floundered.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe sheer number of complainants may raise suspicion but not proof beyond reasonable doubt.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lambert will be sentenced on his 13 total charges on November 28.<\/p>\n

Belinda Feek is an Open Justice reporter based in Waikato. She has worked at NZME for 10 years and has been a journalist for 21.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Prosecutor Steve Hickey submitted that Lambert accepted the work and the money, without any intention of finishing the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":106199,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[1117,95,1873,25598,76633,3561,29116,76634,3025,111,139,69,1118,213,1524],"class_list":{"0":"post-106198","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports","8":"tag-accused","9":"tag-and","10":"tag-charges","11":"tag-cleared","12":"tag-concreter","13":"tag-fraud","14":"tag-jason","15":"tag-lambert","16":"tag-most","17":"tag-new-zealand","18":"tag-newzealand","19":"tag-nz","20":"tag-of","21":"tag-sports","22":"tag-waikato"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/106198","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=106198"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/106198\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/106199"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=106198"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=106198"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=106198"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}