spotted by store security who alerted the police and Liu was caught.<\/a><\/p>\nThe total amount stolen from all of the victims was $89,498.34..<\/p>\n
When she was arrested, Liu claimed she was following the instructions of an \u201conline friend\u201d and placed the iPhones outside her home to be collected by a stranger.<\/p>\n
At the time, she said she was unaware the credit card information was stolen but later pleaded guilty to the scam.<\/p>\n
Embarrassment and self-blame for victim<\/p>\n
During her sentencing, the impact on Liu\u2019s second victim, the plumber who lost more than $16,000, was outlined in a statement, some of which was read out in court.<\/p>\n
The bank was able to cover half of his loss but he had to borrow the rest from his family.<\/p>\n
The family loans were now \u201changing over\u201d the self-employed man, who said he had to work for a year-and-a-half to pay back the loss.<\/p>\n
The loss had affected his business and caused his wh\u0101nau emotional harm.<\/p>\n
He felt a level of embarrassment and self-blame and had lost trust in the \u201csystems\u201d the scam imitated. <\/p>\n
A privileged upbringing<\/p>\n
The court heard Liu was driven to become involved in the \u201ctrans-national\u201d scam by loan sharks to cover her gambling debts.<\/p>\n
However, Liu\u2019s gambling and drug addictions had to be tempered by the fact she seemingly came from a privileged background, Crown prosecutor Ben Kirkpatrick said.<\/p>\n
Kirkpatrick noted Liu had \u201csignificant\u201d financial support from her family in the past, having studied in Australia for five years, and was supported by an aunt based in New Zealand.<\/p>\n
Hers were different circumstances from most who came before the court, Kirkpatrick said.<\/p>\n
Liu\u2019s lawyer, Holly Aitken, said her client was still in touch with her family, but the lawyer was unsure whether the supportive family should have to \u201ccop\u201d any reparation sought.<\/p>\n
A minion in a master\u2019s operation<\/p>\n
Liu\u2019s lawyer said her client had become involved in the scam through \u201cdebt and dependency\u201d and was at the bottom of its \u201cchain of command\u201d.<\/p>\n
Aitken said an alcohol and drug report showed there was a connection between the woman\u2019s drug and gambling addictions and her \u201cpoor judgment\u201d.<\/p>\n
But the Crown submitted the woman\u2019s addictions hadn\u2019t affected her overall ability to fulfil her role in the scam.<\/p>\n
Aitken argued the causal \u201cconnection\u201d wasn\u2019t about Liu being impaired on the job, but that the woman took part in the scam to pay off her gambling and drug debts.<\/p>\n
Liu was vulnerable, indebted and subjected to the criminal economy, social control and fear, Aitken said.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe was really a minion in a master\u2019s operation.\u201d<\/p>\n
Stealing from \u2018responsible\u2019 New Zealanders<\/p>\n
Judge Lemalu Hermann Retzlaff noted the woman\u2019s victims were \u201cresponsible\u201d New Zealanders who were trying to do the right thing.<\/p>\n
He said there was a high level of premeditation in this case, as Liu had come to New Zealand to be involved in the scam.<\/p>\n
She sought out particular items as she was told and left them outside to be collected, he said.<\/p>\n
The judge had read an apology letter from Liu that showed her remorse, but he said comments from the woman indicated she also knew something wasn\u2019t right and carried on regardless.<\/p>\n
Liu exerted commitment to the scam in a short period of time but was not involved in the \u201csophisticated lines of communication\u201d that deceived the victims into giving their details.<\/p>\n
For five charges of obtaining by deception, Liu was sentenced to two years, nine months\u2019 imprisonment and ordered to pay back $8435.50 to the second victim.<\/p>\n
Ella Scott-Fleming has been a journalist for three years and previously worked at the Otago Daily Times, Gore Ensign and Metro Magazine. She has an interest in court and general reporting. She\u2019s currently based in Auckland covering justice-related stories.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Now that man has told the court he feels embarrassment and self-blame for getting caught up in the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":474565,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[239223,37483,2082,78,14641,156316,6096,111,43,139,69,16488,239222,1314,205,1461,7364,42032],"class_list":["post-474564","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-89k","tag-fake","tag-for","tag-in","tag-jailed","tag-liu","tag-message","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-nzta","tag-qingle","tag-road","tag-role","tag-scam","tag-text","tag-toll"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/474564","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=474564"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/474564\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/474565"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=474564"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=474564"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=474564"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}