Scheme to get $663,000 in gold, cash admitted

Press, 24 February 1987, Page 4

Scheme to get $663,000 in gold, cash admitted

An Invercargill man admitted in the District Court in Christchurch yesterday his involvement in a fraud scheme to obtain $663,002 in gold and cash. The defendant, Trevor Alan Lee, aged 37, a contractor, was to have faced trial by jury in the District Court, beginning yesterday, but pleaded guilty before jurors were called. He admitted the charge that between August 1, 1985 and December 20, 1985, at Dunedin and other places in New Zealand, together with two other persons he conspired by deceit to defraud the Post Office and the Auckland Coin and

Bullion Exchange. Judge Hobbs remanded Lee to March 4 for a probation report and sentence. He granted bail of $2OOO in Lee’s own recognisance, with two sureties of $3OOO each. At the preliminary hearing held last May Lee had been committed for trial by jury on eight charges.

These were that on December 20, 1985 at Dunedin (six charges) and Timaru (two charges) he fraudulently used a National Bank cheque, personalised for the Trustees Executors and Agency Company of New Zealand, Ltd, to obtain a

pecuniary advantage. The jury trial was to have proceeded on the one substituted charge, to which he pleaded guilty yesterday.

Two other persons jointly charged with Lee had previously pleaded guilty and have been sentenced for their involvement In the scheme.

Evidence at the preliminary hearing - had been that one of the cheques involved in the fraud had been used in an attempt to obtain gold. Lee had been apprehended by the police after booking into a motel in Christchurch.