{"id":157843,"date":"2025-11-28T10:27:45","date_gmt":"2025-11-28T10:27:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/157843\/"},"modified":"2025-11-28T10:27:45","modified_gmt":"2025-11-28T10:27:45","slug":"waikato-tradie-jason-lambert-was-in-over-his-head-when-he-ripped-off-victims","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/157843\/","title":{"rendered":"Waikato tradie Jason Lambert was \u2018in over his head\u2019 when he ripped off victims"},"content":{"rendered":"

While the judge considered a sentence of either home detention<\/a> or community detention, Lambert\u2019s counsel, Kerry Hadaway, successfully argued for the less restrictive community detention, primarily to allow him to repay the money.<\/p>\n

\u2018I\u2019ll get gang members to beat you up\u2019<\/p>\n

The court heard that Lambert ran a concrete and landscaping business<\/a> and advertised his services primarily on Facebook Marketplace.<\/p>\n

Over six months in late 2020 and early 2021, he took on jobs and asked for a 40% deposit before work started.<\/p>\n

He either failed to complete the work or didn\u2019t start the jobs at all, at times providing myriad excuses.<\/p>\n

One of the charges on which he was convicted resulted from his speaking threateningly to a victim who wanted his money back.<\/p>\n

\"JasonJason Mark Lambert was sentenced in the Hamilton District Court. <\/p>\n

Lambert sent him an abusive text message, threatening to have patched gang members beat him up.<\/p>\n

\u201cThreats, I hope you appreciate, were taken very seriously and made him and his family very afraid,\u201d the judge told him.<\/p>\n

\u2018Robbing Peter to pay Paul\u2019<\/p>\n

Hadaway pushed for discounts for Lambert\u2019s late guilty pleas, delay in getting his case to trial, time on restrictive bail, background issues and his alcohol and drug addiction.<\/p>\n

After going through Lambert\u2019s finances with him, she suggested fortnightly repayments of $100.<\/p>\n

\u201cI just don\u2019t want to set him up in the wrong situation … of robbing Peter to pay Paul,\u201d she told the judge.<\/p>\n

The judge said the repayment amount was unlikely to give the victims \u201cany comfort at all\u201d and asked if Lambert had any assets he could sell.<\/p>\n

\"JasonJason Mark Lambert ripped off 12 clients. Photo \/ Belinda Feek<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t believe so,\u201d Hadaway replied.<\/p>\n

When asked by the judge exactly what he spent his victims\u2019 money on, Hadaway said there was no evidence to suggest it had funded a lavish lifestyle or gambling; rather, most of it went on materials, including pit sand and concrete.<\/p>\n

At the time, he was living with his partner, which Hadaway said wasn\u2019t \u201cthe most healthy relationship\u201d, and he turned to methamphetamine to cope with stress.<\/p>\n

The offending also occurred during Covid-19 restrictions. <\/p>\n

However, Lambert was remorseful and \u201ctook full responsibility for his actions\u201d, Hadaway submitted.<\/p>\n

She also urged the judge to hand down a community detention sentence, as home detention would place stress on his job and employer, due to attending multiple job sites in a day across the Waikato and Bay of Plenty.<\/p>\n

\u2018Each victim has suffered greatly\u2019<\/p>\n

Judge Saunders said the victims were \u201cordinary New Zealanders\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cMany families were of modest means, and [the work] was a major financial commitment.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey were unfamiliar with the concrete industry and relied upon you.\u201d<\/p>\n

She told Lambert his offending had caused them \u201cextreme stress and distress\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cEmotionally and financially, each of the victims has suffered greatly.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne took out a loan to pay and is still paying it with nothing to show for it.<\/p>\n

\u201cMany were pensioners.<\/p>\n

\u201cMany describe feeling anxious and sad … and are now, unsurprisingly, suspicious of online contractors.<\/p>\n

\u201cSome say they feel embarrassed, saying it was their fault and they let you take advantage of them.\u201d<\/p>\n

She hoped Lambert could appreciate that many of the victims would not be interested in his apology. <\/p>\n

\u2018You got in way over your head\u2019<\/p>\n

Judge Saunders found that, because of the repetitive nature of his offending, it was premeditated, but she accepted that he didn\u2019t target his victims.<\/p>\n

It involved multiple deceptions at the same time, but the offending was not sophisticated.<\/p>\n

As for his motivation, and because there was no evidence of personal gain, Judge Saunders said she was left with the impression that \u201cyou got in way over your head\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou were an inexperienced sole businessman, and you didn\u2019t know how to operate the business.\u201d<\/p>\n

It was also carried out during Covid-19 and its aftermath, which was one of the most difficult periods to try to operate a business.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou made the decision to start the business … to start the work … take the deposits.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou decided what work you would do and what work you didn\u2019t complete.\u201d<\/p>\n

After taking a starting point of 30 months imprisonment, the judge gave 5% discount for his pleas, 10% for his meth addiction, and 20% for the four-year delay for his trial.<\/p>\n

Although she would normally issue a home detention sentence, she agreed a six-month community detention sentence, coupled with 12 months\u2019 supervision, would give him more flexibility to work and repay his victims.<\/p>\n

However, she would review the reparation payments and his financial situation in 12 months.<\/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":"While the judge considered a sentence of either home detention or community detention, Lambert\u2019s counsel, Kerry Hadaway, successfully…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":157844,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[3381,104345,12513,692,106,293,78,29116,76634,111,43,139,69,6662,1523,10142,14033,20108,8844,1524,6736,1316,5977,4576],"class_list":["post-157843","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-complete","tag-deposits","tag-failed","tag-he","tag-head","tag-his","tag-in","tag-jason","tag-lambert","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-off","tag-over","tag-paid","tag-ripped","tag-tradie","tag-victims","tag-waikato","tag-was","tag-when","tag-which","tag-work"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/157843","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=157843"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/157843\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/157844"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=157843"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=157843"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=157843"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}