Jock Anderson

Ex-Hamilton finance broker Miles John McKelvy (48) the king pin in New Zealand’s biggest mortgage fraud racket, was jailed for eight years after admitting swindling more than $1 million from mainly low-income homeowners and lending institutions.

McKelvy, said to be happy with his penalty because he expected a longer jail term,faced 27 charges for his role as the central figure in a complex scam unraveled in a two-year police investigation into money laundering and property fraud which led to about 30 people, including five lawyers, facing some 400 charges.

McKelvy, a recidivist offender with numerous convictions for dishonesty, was in custody awaiting trial since May 2004.

Police alleged in Hamilton High Court in June that McKelvy was the head of a criminal organization that orchestrated false equity mortgages and other fraud targeting mainly lower-income families.

According to media reports police said false documents were presented to finance institutions for loan amounts higher than the actual purchase price to cover fictitious deposits and a profit margin.

(One of the finance companies drawn into the mortgage money-go-round was Christchurch-based Provincial Finance, now in receivership).

Another Operation Allsorts defendant, Robert Stirling (53), described by Justice Paul Heath as an unscrupulous and heartless offender, got more than five years jail in May after earlier pleading guilty to 17 fraud charges.

Last year Hamilton businessman Michael Perry (35), who denied but later admitted his guilt, was jailed for 12 months for his part in the fraud and money laundering operation.

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