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Home Detention sentence for Motor Trade Finance fraud
Media Release
11 May 2012
Home Detention sentence for Motor Trade Finance fraud
Karl Sean Toussaint (41) appeared in the Auckland District Court today and was sentenced to nine months Home Detention and 200 hours of community work.
Mr Toussaint is the third of seven defendants to be sentenced for his role in a scheme to defraud Dunedin-based vehicle finance company Motor Trade Finances Ltd (MTF), following an investigation by the Serious Fraud Office (SFO).
Mr Toussaint pleaded guilty in February to five charges under the Crimes Act of obtaining by deception.
Two others accused, Clark Anthony Lewis (35) and Stewart Travis Saunders (44) have pled guilty to charges of obtaining funds by deception for their roles in the scheme.
The SFO laid a combined total of 110 charges against seven individuals, including Mr Toussaint, in August 2011, as a result of allegations made against Mark James Whelan (39), formerly an Auckland-based retail dealer for MTF and later a franchisee of the company.
It is alleged that while in those positions and between July 2005 and February 2009, Mr Whelan wrote a number of loans in the names of family, friends and associates using various non-existent assets as security. He is accused of obtaining loans totaling $4.9 million and using those funds for personal gain, including the purchase of land, servicing of personal debts, and investing in a futures trading scheme.
Mr Toussaint signed five contracts that falsely represented that a loan from MTF was secured against specified assets. These assets did not exist.
Mr Whelan is still facing 25 individual charges and 41 joint charges of obtaining by deception under the Crimes Act.
The other individuals facing joint charges under the Crimes Act for their roles in obtaining illegal funds under Mr Whelan’s scheme are: Richard Michael Barnett (43), 16 charges; Jonathan Earle Chiswell (36), three charges; and Brett Royce Donaldson (50), seven charges. Mr Chiswell and Mr Whelan are also facing a further three joint charges. They have been remanded for trial beginning 4 March 2013
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