{"id":438193,"date":"2026-05-21T10:32:11","date_gmt":"2026-05-21T10:32:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/438193\/"},"modified":"2026-05-21T10:32:11","modified_gmt":"2026-05-21T10:32:11","slug":"police-warning-after-tourist-convicted-of-painting-scam","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/438193\/","title":{"rendered":"Police warning after tourist convicted of painting scam"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Man<\/p>\n

\n

Photo: 123RF\n<\/p>\n

Police are warning of scams from overseas visitors after a tourist from the UK swindled tens of thousands of dollars from a couple.<\/p>\n

It is the 14th prosecution in the past three years by the Auckland City Financial Crime Unit of a foreign national for a scam.<\/p>\n

Andrew Yeshua Glauberman, 21, pleaded guilty to two fraud offences and a handful of shoplifting offences.<\/p>\n

His associate, 29-year-old Thomas Jay Taylor, had a warrant issued for his arrest for obtaining by deception.<\/p>\n

Detective Senior Sergeant Craig Bolton said the pair dropped a flyer in a mailbox advertising a fake painting company called Everlast Home Improvements.<\/p>\n

“Unfortunately, the unassuming victims have engaged the services of the bogus company and handed over $27,000 as a deposit.”<\/p>\n

While an associate turned up the following day, he only carried out a lazy sanding job on the exterior, he said.<\/p>\n

Bolton was keen to hear from anyone in Auckland or further afield who may have received such a flyer and handed over money.<\/p>\n

“If you haven’t received the services that you’ve put a deposit down on, it’s highly likely you’ve been scammed and we need to hear from you.”<\/p>\n

Bolton said the Counties Manukau East Area Prevention Unit arrested Glauberman and his associate for five shoplifting offences and obtaining by deception at a Manukau hardware store.<\/p>\n

Glauberman would remain in custody until he is sentenced on 11 September, Bolton added.<\/p>\n

“If Taylor returns to New Zealand, he will receive a welcoming committee from New Zealand Police and he will be arrested.”<\/p>\n

Bolton hoped these charges would send a message to foreign nationals who thought New Zealand was a soft target.<\/p>\n

Other scams have included “ghost-tapping” of stolen credit cards, impersonating the police, text messaging, foreign exchange, blessing, term deposits and travelling – including deposits for roof and paint work.<\/p>\n

Bolton said most offenders faced jail time and ultimately removal from the country.<\/p>\n

Sign up for Ng\u0101 Pitopito K\u014drero<\/a>, a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Photo: 123RF Police are warning of scams from overseas visitors after a tourist from the UK swindled tens…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":438194,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[48,47,42,43,49,46,44,45,40,38,41,39],"class_list":["post-438193","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-audio","tag-current-affairs","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-podcasts","tag-public-radio","tag-radio-new-zealand","tag-rnz","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/438193","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=438193"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/438193\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/438194"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=438193"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=438193"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=438193"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}