But the judge said she did believe he spent time in an African prison, allowing a 15% reduction for the added stress Austen might feel as a result. <\/p>\n
He was ordered to serve three years and three months\u2019 imprisonment, with the judge attributing part of the sentence to a lack of remorse. <\/p>\n
\u201cYou genuinely believe you had set the business up legally,\u201d she noted. \u201cI don\u2019t accept that, Mr Austen. To put this colloquially, you conned [them].\u201d <\/p>\n
His explanations, she said, were \u201cimplausible and disengenuous\u201d. <\/p>\n
Judge Pippa Sinclair, photographed at North Shore District Court in 2014. Photo \/ Sarah Ivey<\/p>\n
Jurors were told during Austen\u2019s trial that he registered a company called The Couch Potato Ltd \u2013 its sole proclaimed product being a pillow that unrolled into a blanket. <\/p>\n
Between 2012 and 2019, he put on a ruse that the company was a success, even creating a fake email at one point suggesting the product would be distributed to retail outlets throughout New Zealand. <\/p>\n
But there never was a product, and much of the nearly $400,000 he gathered from investors went into his personal account, the court was told. <\/p>\n
He met the first victim in 2011 through friends and eventually convinced him to invest $200,000 for a 25% stake in the business. <\/p>\n
Two years later, he went back to the victim and said the company needed more investors. The original victim was able to find three more investors \u2013 including his mother \u2013 to pony up about $110,000 combined. <\/p>\n
In 2015, he convinced his personal trainer and her husband to invest $39,000, lying that the company was profitable and the product was sold at 1330 retailers. <\/p>\n
\u201cShe believed you,\u201d the judge noted. <\/p>\n
In 2017, when she confronted him after realising something was amiss, Austen showed her a forged bank transaction purporting to pay her what was owed. <\/p>\n
But in reality, there was no way he could pay, the judge said. He had $1.03 in his account. <\/p>\n
Austen also convinced his cleaner and her husband to invest $100,000 \u2013 an amount that took years of scrimping, saving and foregoing holidays to save up on their working-class salaries, the couple said in their victim impact statements read aloud in court this week. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe now have to work into our 70s to save this amount again,\u201d the wife said, explaining that her trust in others had vanished. <\/p>\n
The couple said they had expected $473,000 once their investment matured, but they would be content for the court to order Austen to pay the $97,600 lost from their investment. <\/p>\n
The crime has affected their marriage, the husband said, with each blaming the other \u201cfor being drawn into his web of deceit\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cPeter gained our trust and deliberately fleeced us while smiling at us,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n
The first victim said in a written victim impact statement that he has lost 20kg due to the frustration, anger and guilt of having lost his retirement fund and having brought his 87-year-old mother into the scam. <\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m no longer the man I was before I met the accused,\u201d he said, explaining that he used to own and run his own business but he now lacks the self-confidence to make big financial decisions. <\/p>\n
He estimated he was out about $900,000 when also considering what he should have made on the investment. <\/p>\n
\u201cI rue the day I met the accused,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n
Judge Sinclair described the victim accounts as \u201craw and sobering\u201d. <\/p>\n
At the conclusion of Austen\u2019s trial, jurors had quickly found him guilty of three representative charges of obtaining by deception, punishable by up to seven years\u2019 imprisonment. <\/p>\n
Crown prosecutor Matthew Nathan. Photo \/ Jason Oxenham<\/p>\n
Crown prosecutor Matthew Nathan advocated for a starting point of four to five years\u2019 jail, to be followed by modest reductions for his lack of prior convictions and the impact PTSD would have on his time in prison. <\/p>\n
Defence lawyer Shane Kilian sought a starting point of two to three years, with a much more substantial 35% reduction for a range of personal mitigating factors. He said his client hoped the end sentence would be home detention. <\/p>\n
\u201cThere were some sales being made,\u201d Kilian said of the business. \u201cThere was a product. There was actually something happening.\u201d<\/p>\n
But Nathan described the company as \u201ceffectively non-existent\u201d despite Austen\u2019s brazen \u201cfalse narrative of this thriving, successful business\u201d in which he claimed millions of dollars were being made. <\/p>\n
Austen, he said, was \u201cthe sole author of this fraudulent scheme and the sole recipient\u201d. <\/p>\n
\u201cThis was to enable him to maintain his lifestyle,\u201d Nathan said, adding that the defendant created \u201ca facade of being wealthy\u201d by claiming to own property he rented \u2013 \u201cnot for need but purely for greed\u201d. <\/p>\n
Judge Sinclair was unpersuaded by the defence\u2019s non-custodial sentence request. <\/p>\n
\u201cThe safety of the community requires a sentence which may be a deterrent to others,\u201d she said before reviewing all the aggravating features of Austen\u2019s scheme. <\/p>\n
\u201cYour deceit was layered,\u201d she said, describing the swindle as sophisticated, long-running and financially lucrative. \u201cYou manufactured documents, including fake transactions, cheques and emails.\u201d <\/p>\n
He was also responsible, she said, for repeatedly breaching the trust of his victims \u2013 exploiting them \u201cin a deliberate and high-handed manner\u201d and conveying \u201ca false narrative of a thriving and successful business… for the purposes of maintaining your lifestyle\u201d. <\/p>\n
She ordered a starting point of four years and three months\u2019 imprisonment before allowing a 5% discount for his previous good character and the 15% for his PTSD. <\/p>\n
Born in Zimbabwe, Austen said he studied architectural drafting and got involved in the building sector. According to his own unverified account, he at one point owned the largest home construction business in Zimbabwe but he lost the business when Mugabe took power in the 1980s. <\/p>\n
Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe. Photo \/ Reuters<\/p>\n
The controversial President<\/a>, who spent decades in power before a 2017 coup, was both lauded and fiercely criticised for his steps to erode the power of the nation\u2019s white minority. <\/p>\n Austen said he immigrated to New Zealand with only a few thousand dollars in 2005, three years after he was detained by soldiers for two months and tortured. <\/p>\n \u201cThe court is not unsympathetic to someone who has been detained and tortured,\u201d the judge said. <\/p>\n But, she added, she had confidence the New Zealand prison system could help him cope with any mental health strains. <\/p>\n \u201cYou have functioned in the community since 2002,\u201d she noted. \u201cI have gained the impression you have overstated the significance of your PTSD.\u201d<\/p>\n The judge agreed with lawyers there was little hope of Austen ever repaying the $238,000 still owed to his victims. Since his arrest, he said, he has gone bankrupt, his wife has left him and he is surviving on a benefit. <\/p>\n Given the circumstances, Judge Sinclair said, ordering restitution would be futile. <\/p>\n