An “extremely talented” farm equipment salesman who “had no head for business” ripped off 25 of his customers to the tune of around $360,000 in a desperate bid to save himself from financial ruin.

Christopher Carter owned a second-hand farm machinery business, Carteragri Limited, where he bought and sold machinery through Trade Me and Facebook.

But in January 2019 he began swindling people out of money and farm equipment and despite being arrested for this and appearing in court in July 2020 on a number of charges, he continued the offending while on bail until March 2021.

The 48-year-old was back in New Plymouth District Court this week facing four admitted representative charges of theft by a person in a special relationship. Each charge represented a number of victims over a certain period.

Carter’s modus operandi was chaotic but the outcome was simple - he dishonestly acquired property and funds.

He sold farm equipment on behalf of people but would pocket the cash himself, he purchased items with a deposit and would take the goods and not pay the balance, he hired equipment and then sold it without the owner’s permission, and he sold items to people and then never delivered them.

Sometimes he sold the same piece of equipment to more than one person and sometimes he sold items that he did not even have in his possession.

Of the 25 victims, the biggest loss was for a man who gave Carter a Cross Slot Drill and Scoop valued at around $80,000 to sell on his behalf.

After Carter, of Taranaki, made the sale, he never gave the victim the money.

Another substantial loss was for a man who purchased a Volvo Loader for $56,000 from Carter. The item was never delivered to him.

Carter was sentenced in New Plymouth District Court on Tuesday. Photo / Tara Shaskey

In court, defence lawyer Julian Hannam said Carter had a strong desire to repay the money to all of his victims.

He said Carter was an “extremely talented salesman” who knew farm equipment well and managed to move a vast quantity of goods.

“But he’s got no head whatsoever for the business of business, that is the accounting of it.

“And regrettably things just got out of control. It’s very much a situation of one failed settlement of a sale then feeding into another; funds not becoming available.”

Hannam described it as “chasing the dragon.

“He was trying to get back in control of it and failing to do so. Assuring people everything would be fine, while it wasn’t.”

Given the amount of money involved and the number of victims, Hannam said the starting point must be imprisonment.

But a probation officer’s report stated an end sentence of jail was disproportionately severe for the offending, which Hannam agreed with.

So that Carter could continue working and make reparation payments, home detention should be imposed, he submitted.

Crown prosecutor Holly Bullock said the probation report assessed Carter as a low risk of reoffending and a low risk of harm to others, which she strongly disagreed with given the nature of the offending and that it continued while on bail.

Bullock said there was also a “telling” comment in the report where Carter stated he was only remorseful for about 80 per cent of the victims as the rest were taken out of his control by a liquidator. The business went into liquidation in February 2020.

It was unrealistic that the full amount of reparation being sought would be paid and so Bullock submitted the sentence should be one of imprisonment.

“A community-based sentence, quite frankly, would not recognise the seriousness of the offending.”

Judge Gregory Hikaka said there were a number of victim impact statements provided to the court detailing the various ways the offending had affected people.

One elderly person is suffering from failing health and has been in respite care, some have had to extend their mortgages and some have had their businesses severely impacted.”

Victims described Carter as “cunning” and “manipulative” and felt he should be imprisoned.

Referring to submissions, Judge Hikaka said Carter’s business had been making a turnover of $5 million a year before it collapsed to debt and criminal offending, which became a case of “robbing Peter to pay Paul”.

Carter did not have any previous convictions and had met with one victim through the restorative justice process.

He said the aggravating factors included the period of time the offending occurred, the significant breach of trust, the number of people impacted, an aspect of premeditation, and the extent of the losses.

After taking a starting point of four years imprisonment, the judge gave credit for Carter’s guilty pleas, remorse, determination to pay reparation and previous good character before landing on an end sentence of 12 months of home detention.

Judge Hikaka ordered him to pay $10,000 he had in trust to a named victim and to pay $2500 per month in reparation going forward.

Tara Shaskey joined NZME in 2022 as a news director and Open Justice reporter. She has been a reporter since 2014 and previously worked at Stuff where she covered crime and justice, arts and entertainment, and Māori issues.