He told the Parole Board at a hearing last July<\/a>, when seeking early release, he was now \u201cdisgusted and embarrassed\u201d by his actions.<\/p>\n He claimed he only agreed to board the flight to New Zealand and pick up packages stuffed with cash after a British crime syndicate threatened to harm his mother and brother.<\/p>\n However, the panel hearing the parole case was not convinced of his sincerity, because he refused to co-operate with police and tell them who was behind the scam ring he was part of.<\/p>\n The panel said banks covered a lot of the losses suffered, but $28,000 remained outstanding, which Hennessy said he intended to repay.<\/p>\n He was granted parole at a second hearing last month, despite lingering concerns regarding his victim narrative.<\/p>\n He had also earlier claimed he was blackmailed into his actions<\/a> after losing a luxury $200,000 Swiss watch \u201cloaned to him by dangerous British criminals\u201d.<\/p>\n Panel convenor Ann-Marie Beveridge said his victim narrative bordered on him describing a situation in which he was \u201cheroic\u201d, saving his family from being impacted by a so-called organised criminal group. <\/p>\n \u201cHe said at one point he is easily led. We are not so sure about that,\u201d Beveridge said.<\/p>\n Offending started soon after landing<\/p>\n Hennessy landed in Auckland<\/a> on June 9, 2024, rented a downtown apartment, then proceeded to steal $337,700 over the next 14 days.<\/p>\n The victims were called by scammers posing as police officers<\/a> and convinced to withdraw large sums of money from their bank accounts in the belief they were assisting undercover detectives in a sting operation targeting counterfeit banknotes.<\/p>\n Hennessy used taxis to visit the victims\u2019 homes to collect the cash, posing as a plain-clothed police courier. He used prearranged code words including \u201caroha\u201d, \u201ct\u014dtara\u201d \u201ctreetop\u201d and \u201cTimbuktu\u201d to convince his victims he was a genuine state operative.<\/p>\n They believed that after they handed the money to Hennessy, it would be whisked to investigators, checked for fake notes, then redeposited into their accounts.<\/p>\n In reality, the money was either pocketed by Hennessy or sent to his bosses overseas.<\/p>\n Caught weeks after arriving<\/p>\n Hennessy said at last year\u2019s parole hearing he was told to contact a person in Auckland, who took a cut from the money he handed over and transferred the rest as cryptocurrency.<\/p>\n He was caught just weeks after arriving on his way to pick up $20,000 from an 83-year-old victim who had already handed over $16,000.<\/p>\n After being spotted in a taxi in central Auckland, he led police on a brief foot chase<\/a> before being arrested.<\/p>\n Beveridge said in a written decision provided to NZME following last month\u2019s hearing that Hennessy maintained his narrative that an organised criminal group were threatening him and his family, and that he had no other choice but to commit the offending. <\/p>\n \u201cIn saying that, we do not have any affidavit evidence from him or anyone else to support that narrative,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n The panel accepted legal submissions on Hennessy\u2019s behalf that he posed an \u201cexceptionally low risk\u201d of reoffending, that he had family support and was anxious to return to his family.<\/p>\n Showed remorse and insight<\/p>\n He had also demonstrated remorse and insight, and it was in the public interest that he be released. <\/p>\n \u201cFurther, that whatever risk may exist, the nature and seriousness of potential offending does not indicate the need for continued incarceration,\u201d Beveridge said.<\/p>\n The panel was satisfied Hennessy would not be an undue risk for the period for which he would be on parole and directed that he be released in March into the custody of the New Zealand Immigration<\/a> authorities, or to the New Zealand Police<\/a>, for deportation from New Zealand. <\/p>\n Special conditions imposed until September 2027 included that he not return to New Zealand.<\/p>\n Tracy Neal is a Nelson-based Open Justice reporter at NZME. She was previously RNZ\u2019s regional reporter in Nelson-Marlborough and has covered general news, including court and local government for the Nelson Mail.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The offending targeted more than 20 victims, aged from 59 to 92, who were tricked into thinking they…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":279985,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[156945,1558,11652,125,156944,2245,11908,2082,71,13800,19196,156942,78,296,22259,4486,111,43,139,1536,69,7859,675,24173,8442,2887,156943,38312,1346,1533,80],"class_list":["post-279984","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-156945","tag-been","tag-courier","tag-deported","tag-dupe","tag-early","tag-english","tag-for","tag-from","tag-giving","tag-granted","tag-hennessywho","tag-in","tag-into","tag-jack","tag-month","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-next","tag-nz","tag-pensioners","tag-police","tag-posed","tag-prison","tag-release","tag-ruse","tag-scammer","tag-stole","tag-will","tag-zealand"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/279984","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=279984"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/279984\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/279985"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=279984"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=279984"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=279984"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Jack Hennessy during sentencing in Auckland District Court on charges of obtaining by deception. The UK national was part of a scam that swindled victims, many of them elderly, out of thousands of dollars. Photo \/ Sylvie Whinray<\/p>\n