{"id":408763,"date":"2026-05-02T19:09:08","date_gmt":"2026-05-02T19:09:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/408763\/"},"modified":"2026-05-02T19:09:08","modified_gmt":"2026-05-02T19:09:08","slug":"taupo-couple-lose-life-savings-in-a-callous-scam-by-friend-petronella-laatz","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/408763\/","title":{"rendered":"Taup\u014d couple lose life savings in a \u2018callous\u2019 scam by friend Petronella Laatz"},"content":{"rendered":"

Mienie says she did not know that, nor did she realise she could look up the business on the Companies Office<\/a>, to see who its owners and directors were.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe told us that she has shares in this business with fellow South Africans that we also know,\u201d Mienie told NZME.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe just told us how great things are going, and we saw she bought herself a new … BMW.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mienie claims Laatz told them her co-owners were going to leave the business, and \u201casked us if we want to invest\u201d. <\/p>\n

\u201cBecause then this will be my last calving on the farm, and she and I can run this business … I can also dress up nicely, you know? She just drafted this whole picture of these future plans for us.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mienie said they \u201ctook her word\u201d because they had been friends for \u201cmany, many years\u201d.<\/p>\n

They were offered 40% shares in the business for $150,000.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy husband wasn\u2019t very keen to do that, but I kind of convinced him.\u201d <\/p>\n

Mienie said they paid the money into Laatz\u2019s private account at her request.<\/p>\n

And then Mienies waited. And waited.<\/p>\n

A few months later, the Mienies wanted to pursue another opportunity and said they referred to a signed agreement that stipulated any of the parties could give notice they wanted to leave the business, and that the money would be paid back.<\/p>\n

\"CarlienCarlien convinced her husband Carel to “invest” the money, because she wanted to leave behind the physically demanding farming work.<\/p>\n

But the money never came.<\/p>\n

A friend of the Mienies found that at the point Laatz had sold the shares she didn\u2019t actually own any.<\/p>\n

\u201cAfter she received our money, it was about three or four months later, she was registered as a majority shareholder of the business, so we assume she used our money to buy shares in the business.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mienie claims Laatz then told them the business wasn\u2019t doing well, she was planning to sell and then would pay them back.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe did sell the business, and she didn\u2019t pay one cent to us,\u201d Miene said.<\/p>\n

Mienie said they had emigrated to New Zealand for a safer life, away from the crime and danger they saw in their home country. <\/p>\n

It was particularly hurtful that, having now spent 13 years in New Zealand, they had been targeted by a fellow South African, with whom they had shared a close friendship.<\/p>\n

Last month, Laatz was sentenced in the Taup\u014d District Court<\/a>, having pleaded guilty to a charge of obtaining by deception.<\/p>\n

The summary of facts said 55-year-old Laatz contacted the Mienies in May 2023 about the prospect of purchasing 40% shares of her business, Montevideo.<\/p>\n

The victims believed she was the sole shareholder, and the purchase of shares was directly from her.<\/p>\n

They agreed on a price and paid her $150,000 in payments over three days.<\/p>\n

She prepared a Share Purchase Agreement dated May 31, outlining that she, the seller, was the owner of 100% of the shares of Montevideo.<\/p>\n

\"PetronellaPetronella Laatz has been sentenced to home detention after she deceived long-term friends into giving her nearly $165,000.<\/p>\n

The summary of facts did not state what the true ownership of Montevideo was at that stage, but noted that when spoken to by police, Laatz told them the Mienies \u201cknew she was not a full shareholder\u201d.<\/p>\n

The Companies Office register confirmed Laatz was listed as a new shareholder of 74 shares in October 2023.<\/p>\n

The summary said the couple gave a further $12,324 in September 2023, to cover \u201cbusiness expenses\u201d, and purchased items including picnic tables and plants, for a further $2210.<\/p>\n

\u2018You have impoverished them\u2019 says judge<\/p>\n

In a victim impact statement read in court, Carlien said the offending was not only a \u201cfinancial crime\u201d but a \u201cprofound betrayal of trust\u201d, and Laatz had deliberately used their friendship and \u201cgood nature\u201d to gain their trust and \u201csteal [their] money\u201d.<\/p>\n

Judge Thomas Ingram endorsed this submission and said: \u201cYou took advantage of the trust placed in you by long-standing friends. You have impoverished them.\u201d <\/p>\n

\u201cThey engaged in the dairy industry and the money that they gave you for a share of the business was the proceeds of an awful lot of hard work over a long period of time.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said the net result was that the Mienies were \u201c$164,000 odd out of pocket\u201d and at their age and stage of life, that was \u201cno minor matter\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is a very difficult thing to amass that sort of sum and the only way for them to do that is to engage in physically demanding work, and they are no longer in their first flush of youth.\u201d<\/p>\n

However, Judge Ingram noted that Laatz accepted responsibility in pleading guilty and expressing a desire to repay the money.<\/p>\n

He made an order that allowed $10,000 to be taken from Laatz\u2019s KiwiSaver, and the remainder would be paid off at $50 per week.<\/p>\n

The judge said he accepted \u201cunreservedly\u201d that the offending involved taking advantage of a friendship.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is not just a business deal gone bad, it is a whole lot more than that… this is taking advantage of a friendship and trust that had been built up over a number of years and, in my view, it was callous, and in my view, it is well and truly worth a starting point in the order of three and a half years [imprisonment].\u201d<\/p>\n

However, the judge said he must give Laatz credit for her plea, for the fact that she was a first-time offender, and for her offer to pay reparation.<\/p>\n

Once those discounts were applied, it brought the sentence down to two years\u2019 imprisonment, and within home detention range.<\/p>\n

Laatz received an end sentence of 12 months\u2019 home detention.<\/p>\n

The Mienies have been left feeling frustrated over the reparation order.<\/p>\n

Carlien Mienie told NZME she thought the court process would give them a chance to \u201cget their money back\u201d.<\/p>\n

But the repayment of $50 per week seemed \u201cabsurd\u201d to her.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re never going to get our money back in our lifetime and we feel it\u2019s so unfair because we\u2019ve worked our whole life for that…\u201d<\/p>\n

Laatz was approached by NZME, through her lawyer Alexandra McPherson, but declined to comment.<\/p>\n

Hannah Bartlett is a Tauranga-based Open Justice reporter at NZME. She previously covered court and local government for the Nelson Mail, and before that was a radio reporter at Newstalk ZB.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Mienie says she did not know that, nor did she realise she could look up the business on…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":408764,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[3595,120565,8414,12632,78,210335,424,5268,111,139,69,210334,4578,1461,213,1852],"class_list":["post-408763","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-by","tag-callous","tag-couple","tag-friend","tag-in","tag-laatz","tag-life","tag-lose","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-petronella","tag-savings","tag-scam","tag-sports","tag-taup"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/408763","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=408763"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/408763\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/408764"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=408763"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=408763"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=408763"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}