{"id":403532,"date":"2026-04-29T16:48:11","date_gmt":"2026-04-29T16:48:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/403532\/"},"modified":"2026-04-29T16:48:11","modified_gmt":"2026-04-29T16:48:11","slug":"fraudster-handyman-blew-60000-on-gambling-and-massages","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/403532\/","title":{"rendered":"Fraudster handyman blew $60,000 on gambling and massages"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Rob Kidd of \"Otago<\/a><\/p>\n

\"Andrew<\/p>\n

\nAndrew Trevor Hill pictured outside the Dunedin courthouse.
\nPhoto: Otago Daily Times\n<\/p>\n

An “accomplished conman”, whose rip-offs scored him $114,000, has been given a firm ultimatum by a Dunedin judge – show me the money.<\/p>\n

Andrew Trevor Hill, a North Island handyman left a string of unfinished jobs and disgruntled clients and blew the cash on gambling, massages and cryptocurrency, the Dunedin District Court heard on Tuesday.<\/p>\n

The 50-year-old was due to be sentenced after earlier pleading guilty to obtaining by deception and charges under the Plumbers, Gasfitters and Drainlayers Act.<\/p>\n

Judge Nevin Dawson, though, adjourned the hearing because police had not filed submissions; and he was far from impressed by the defendant’s efforts to repay his victims.<\/p>\n

Counsel Philip Ross said Hill could come up with $1000 – less than 1 percent of what he owed – by the following day.<\/p>\n

“This is a court of evidence . . . Where’s the evidence of this mythical $1000?” Judge Dawson said.<\/p>\n

“Mr Hill is an accomplished conman. This is not the first time.”<\/p>\n

The judge, who noted the defendant also had fraud convictions from Australia, was equally scathing of claims the man had a new job.<\/p>\n

Over the coming months, Hill needed to come up with a “substantial” sum of cash towards repaying his victim.<\/p>\n

Even so, he may be locked up for his crimes at sentencing in August, Judge Dawson said.<\/p>\n

Court documents said Hill was trading as Andrew Till Fencing, based in Gisborne, and between July and September, he took on jobs for 14 clients around the region.<\/p>\n

He had no intention of completing the work, a police summary said.<\/p>\n

During the three-month period, Hill received a whopping $352,144 in payments from clients, making a benefit of $114,348.<\/p>\n

Over that timeframe, he withdrew more than $38,000 in cash, splashed out $60,000 on gambling, massages and cryptocurrency and transferred $75,000 to his personal account, the court heard.<\/p>\n

His crimes, which were detailed in a lengthy summary, followed a simple pattern.<\/p>\n

Hill would receive payment from a client, sometimes begin the work, and then cut contact with the victim.<\/p>\n

In July 2024, he agreed to complete concrete and fencing work at one woman’s M\u0101hia property, then spent two days on a digger, clearing trees, never to return.<\/p>\n

The following month, a man in Wairoa paid the defendant nearly $25,000 for a carport, concrete driveway and decking.<\/p>\n

Hiil spent one day on site, breaking up the old concrete, then stopped responding to the victim’s messages.<\/p>\n

There were some jobs where he simply took the money and never showed up.<\/p>\n

The court heard Hill, posing as an authorised tradesman, also took on a $3000 contract for laying stormwater piping at a Gisborne home.<\/p>\n

Just weeks after he was finished, the homeowner noticed her property flooded every time it rained, and complained to the Plumbers, Gasfitters and Drainlayers Board.<\/p>\n

Hill had never held a practising licence to perform such restricted drainlaying work, nor had the two employees who assisted him.<\/p>\n

Ross told the court his client’s previous scams had been driven by drug addiction but that was not the case here.<\/p>\n

He indicated he would be arguing for an electronically monitored sentence in August.<\/p>\n

Judge Dawson was surprised Hill had even been granted bail.<\/p>\n

“My biggest concern is he’s going to do exactly the same to a lot of innocent people and rob Peter to pay Paul,” he said.<\/p>\n

This story was first published by the Otago Daily Times<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By Rob Kidd of Andrew Trevor Hill pictured outside the Dunedin courthouse. Photo: Otago Daily Times An “accomplished…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":403533,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[48,47,111,43,139,69,49,46,44,45],"class_list":["post-403532","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-audio","tag-current-affairs","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-podcasts","tag-public-radio","tag-radio-new-zealand","tag-rnz"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/403532","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=403532"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/403532\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/403533"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=403532"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=403532"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=403532"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}