Mortgage fraudster heading to prison

Mortgage fraudster heading to prison

Mortgage Rates

In June, a jury found socialite Devoy, who was also known as Ellie Stone, Ghorbani and Elaheh Ghorbani Sar Sangi, guilty of her part in the $9.2 million scheme.

The scheme involved a series of property transactions between 2007 and 2010 which deceived lending institutions into approving mortgage applications that contained false information and supporting documents.

Six other parties were involved in the scheme but the Serious Fraud Office, which laid 48 charges against the group, considered Devoy to be the ringleader.

Devoy was found guilty of 17 charges in relation to the scheme.

When sentencing Devoy today, Judge Brooke Gibson said there was a high level of "pure deceit and dishonesty" in her offending.

Judge Gibson also told Devoy there was a complete absence of remorse on her part and that her protestations of innocence verged on fantasy.

Imprisonment was the best option for Devoy, Judge Gibson said.

As such, she was sentenced to five years in prison with a minimum period of imprisonment of two years and six months.

The other defendants were Mehrdad Ghorbani (also known as Mohammad Ghorbani Sarsangi), Mehrzad Ghorbani (Mehdi Ghorbani), Hassan Salarpour, Nasrin Kardani, Mehran Ghorbani (Massoud Ghorbani, AKA Ken Williams) and Javad Toraby.

Mehrdad Ghorbani was sentenced to two years and seven months in prison.

Mehrzad Ghorbani was sentenced to 10 months home detention.

Mehran Ghorbani was sentenced to seven months home detention.

Nasrin Kardani, has been remanded on bail until 9 September 2016 for sentencing.

Hassan Salarpour and Javad Toraby were found not guilty.

SFO director Julie Read welcomed Judge Gibson’s decisions which she said demonstrate there are significant penalties for those who do not provide truthful information to banks and lenders.

Read has previously said the case is important for genuine buyers who are applying for mortgages as the cost of borrowing is increased by this sort of fraudulent conduct.

“We will continue to work with banks who are targeted with false information.

“Every lender should be monitoring this risk and people applying for mortgages should be aware that there are significant penalties for those who do not provide truthful information.”

Keen for the best rate and some cash too?

We've teamed up with award winning mortgage experts, Squirrel.

With over 1,425 five star reviews on Shopper Approved, Squirrel has helped thousands of Kiwis just like you secure the best possible rate when refixing or refinancing. Squirrel often beats the advertised rates so it's worth getting them to review your mortgage.

shopper approved logofive star revews
R

Ryan

New Zealand

five star revews

The service I got from Squirrel was extremely efficient. They dealt with my loan so easily and achieved a result greater than what I was expecting.

J

Jo

New Zealand

five star revews

Highly recommend Squirrel to sort out a mortgage with the banks takes the hassle out of going to separate banks with so much information they do the hard yards for you - Baz was a superstar and helped me all the way to my new home.

Get a free mortgage review

All fields are required