{"id":194551,"date":"2025-12-21T06:53:08","date_gmt":"2025-12-21T06:53:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/194551\/"},"modified":"2025-12-21T06:53:08","modified_gmt":"2025-12-21T06:53:08","slug":"haley-mullens-tiny-home-scam-that-left-a-big-dent-in-her-victims-pocket","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/194551\/","title":{"rendered":"Haley Mullen\u2019s tiny home scam that left a big dent in her victim\u2019s pocket"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cThere was an innocent victim<\/a> here. <\/p>\n

\u201cTheir circumstances were probably not a lot better than yours.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey needed a home. You have stolen from them.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2018I wanted easy money\u2019<\/p>\n

Mullen, using the fake name Riley Simpson, listed the tiny home for sale on Facebook on October 29 last year for $3125.<\/p>\n

The victim inquired and, believing it to be legitimate, agreed to buy it and duly transferred the money.<\/p>\n

However, Mullen\u2019s scam was exposed when she asked the victim for more money.<\/p>\n

The next day, the victim received a call from Kiwi Bank, who confirmed she had been scammed and encouraged her to make a police report.<\/p>\n

She never received the tiny home, nor did she get her money back.<\/p>\n

Police investigated and traced the money through Mullen\u2019s accounts, showing her transferring $1025 into her teen daughter\u2019s account before withdrawing $1850 from an ATM in Enderley.<\/p>\n

The next day, she withdrew $1020 from her daughter\u2019s account.<\/p>\n

When questioned by police, Mullen said she gave her account number to an unknown man \u201cin exchange to get easy money\u201d.<\/p>\n

She admitted receiving the money and withdrawing it, but denied knowing anything about the Facebook ad or how she got the money.<\/p>\n

\u2018Drugs are a pathway to hell\u2019<\/p>\n

Judge Collin told Mullen that this sort of offending \u201ccan\u2019t happen\u201d.<\/p>\n

It was deliberate and involved a breach of trust.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople who use websites for buying and selling have to trust that the [item] actually exists, and when they pay their money, they actually get their purchase. <\/p>\n

\u201cWhen it doesn\u2019t exist, there\u2019s a breach of trust.\u201d<\/p>\n

Like \u201cso many\u201d others who appeared before the court, Mullen had endured a difficult upbringing and \u201clike pretty much everyone else\u201d had difficulties with alcohol and drugs.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe use of drugs is really a pathway to hell.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt makes life difficult, it leads to criminal offending, and ultimately, if you are not careful, it will lead you to prison.\u201d<\/p>\n

He took a starting point of 11 months\u2019 jail, before adding another two months for her two charges of breaching bail and another month for her criminal history, arriving at 14 months.<\/p>\n

He then took off three months for her guilty pleas, and accepted her letter of remorse as genuine.<\/p>\n

Judge Collin sentenced her to four months\u2019 home detention and ordered her to pay reparation of $3215 at $20 per week.<\/p>\n

After issuing her sentence, Judge Collin had a few more choice words to share with Mullen.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou are running close to a term of imprisonment. <\/p>\n

\u201cYou need to deal with your drug problem. <\/p>\n

\u201cI see you\u2019ve used almost every drug that possibly can be imagined.\u201d<\/p>\n

He was pleased to see she had been to see Care NZ and urged her to accept all the help that was offered to her.<\/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":"\u201cThere was an innocent victim here. \u201cTheir circumstances were probably not a lot better than yours. \u201cThey needed…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":194552,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[1863,9218,8834,117271,17898,70227,120621,1364,1345,78,101,68601,300,120622,111,139,69,36356,75081,1133,1461,213,1361,44263,1337,8844,686,1533,1354],"class_list":["post-194551","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-back","tag-before","tag-big","tag-dent","tag-didnt","tag-exist","tag-haley","tag-her","tag-home","tag-in","tag-left","tag-listed","tag-money","tag-mullens","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-pocket","tag-pocketing","tag-sale","tag-scam","tag-sports","tag-that","tag-tiny","tag-victim","tag-victims","tag-week","tag-will","tag-woman"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/194551","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=194551"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/194551\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/194552"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=194551"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=194551"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=194551"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}