living the high life with rented properties and high-end European cars<\/a>\u201d, Detective Senior Sergeant Shane Dye said.<\/p>\n\u201cTheir lavish lifestyle has been funded with money allegedly defrauded from family, friends and associates, for cancer treatment that inquiries show was never required and never obtained.\u201d<\/p>\n
Dye said police acted \u201cas promptly as possible\u201d when the alleged offending came to light, \u201cto prevent further offending on this scale\u201d.<\/p>\n
![\"The]()
The alleged offenders appeared in the Queenstown District Court and were remanded in custody. Photo \/ George Heard<\/p>\n
\u201cMembers of the TOCU will continue to investigate this matter to ensure all offenders are held to account,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cInquiries to date, including an ongoing financial analysis of bank accounts used by the couple, indicate there are other victims who have not yet spoken with police. <\/p>\n
![\"Sepiuta]()
Sepiuta Setaita Vave, appearing via audio-visual link in the Christchurch District Court today. Photo \/ George Heard<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re identifying who they are and will be investigating their complaints.\u201d<\/p>\n
Dye said the couple were already facing criminal charges before their arrest. <\/p>\n
\u201cExisting matters against the couple were filed at court in April 2024 for fraud-related offending against another two victims, totalling $79,000,\u201d he revealed.<\/p>\n
![\"Andrew]()
Andrew Stewart Jones, appearing by audio-visual link at the Christchurch District Court today. Photo \/ George Heard<\/p>\n
As part of the ongoing investigation, police are \u201cseizing assets where possible\u201d to assist with any possible reparation.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd so that potential victims are protected from further offending by this couple,\u201d Dye said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you feel like you have given money away to this couple that matches some of the deceptive reasons mentioned here, or have information that can assist the inquiry, contact the Tasman Organised Crime Unit.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re based in Greymouth, where the team will be actively investigating your complaint.\u201d<\/p>\n
Do you need help?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Both Vave and Jones have entered not guilty pleas on all charges and will stand trial in September…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":41811,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[1117,7818,17704,1343,2534,1873,10712,37484,9881,37483,2109,3561,1445,1132,300,130,23362,111,43,139,425,69,1118,5502,17703,131,2766,20065,1354],"class_list":["post-41810","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-accused","tag-allegedly","tag-assault","tag-associates","tag-cancer","tag-charges","tag-claiming","tag-defrauded","tag-facing","tag-fake","tag-family","tag-fraud","tag-friends","tag-million","tag-money","tag-more","tag-needed","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-now","tag-nz","tag-of","tag-partner","tag-sexual","tag-than","tag-treatment","tag-wnaka","tag-woman"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41810","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=41810"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41810\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/41811"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=41810"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=41810"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=41810"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}