Convicted mortgage fraudster released on parole

Auckland mortgage fraudster released on parole after just over a year in jail

Convicted mortgage fraudster released on parole
An Auckland man involved in a $33 million mortgage fraud has been released on parole after spending a year in jail.

Simon Lawrence Turnbull was last year was sentenced to three years and two months in jail.
He admitted his role in a mortgage fraud where false loan applications were submitted to a fund management company to purchase 16 properties around the Auckland region between September 2006 and August 2007, a report from NZ Herald said.

He had been living out of New Zealand for years and was arrested upon his return to the country. His co-offender Malcolm Mayer, had earlier been jailed for six years for his part in the fraud.

Turnbull has now been released on parole after spending a little over a year in prison.

The parole board, in assessing Turnbull's case, said there were no rehabilitative programmes available to him in prison, and that his situation is “somewhat complicated” with his family living overseas.

“The Department of Corrections would not have oversight of parole conditions beyond New Zealand's shores. We have discussed the possibility of there being an application at some stage for a variation or discharge of conditions ... that, however, must be a matter for the future by way of separate application,” the parole board said.

Turnbull was released from jail in August.


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