A serial scammer with a lengthy history of targeting vulnerable elderly women has been sent to prison again after “entirely” cleaning out a 91-year-old’s bank account over five weeks. 

Dean James McAuley, 54, appeared in the North Shore District Court yesterday afternoon and was ordered to serve 21 months behind bars for his latest offending. 

Recidivist scammer Dean McAuley initially told police his most recent victim was lying. He then admitted 12 charges of stealing more than $10,000 from her. Photo / Anna Leask 

The Herald has been reporting on McAuley’s recidivist scamming since 2013. 

Before today’s hearing, he had 38 convictions for almost identical offending against elderly people. 

The court heard that in February 2025 McAuley knocked on the victim’s door and claimed to be “doing rounds for gutter cleaning”. 

He quoted her $800 to clean her gutters and said he would need more money for brushes and other equipment. 

He took the victim to an ATM, and she withdrew $870 for him. 

Days later, he went back to the victim’s house and said he needed “liquid for her gutter so it would stay clean forever”. 

She gave him her bank card, and he withdrew $850. 

The next day, he told her he needed money for his car and withdrew another $850. 

He promised that he “worked as a builder and would pay the money back”. 

Over the following four weeks, he “continually returned” to the victim and “spoke about hardship and continued to obtain cash from her” until he had “cleaned out” her bank account “entirely”. 

When McAuley was arrested he told police the victim was “lying”. 

But he recently pleaded guilty to 12 charges of obtaining by deception, admitting that he stole a total of $10,680 from the latest victim. 

Judge Maria Pecotic revealed McAuley had 45 convictions – of which 38 involve offending of a similar kind. 

She also confirmed that he was subject to prison release conditions at the time of the offending. 

The victim’s daughter read an impact statement to the court. 

“The impact on my mother has been profound,” she said. 

“She has been ashamed and attempted to hide what has happened. 

“Losing control of her financial independence has been extremely distressing. 

“My mother deserves dignity, safety and the protection from individuals like [McAuley].” 

Serial scammer Dean James McAuley. Photo / Anna Leask 

A presentence report stated McAuley was a father of four – three adults and a son born last year – and a grandfather of 11. 

He did not work, rather he was “reliant on the Government” to support himself and his family. 

He had been assessed as being a “high risk for recidivism”. 

Judge Pecotic said McAuley had offered to pay his victim back – but there was no realistic way for him to do that with no job and effectively no current prospects. 

She said ordering him to pay the woman back the more-than-$10,000 he stole was “setting him up to fail” and she worried he would continue offending in order to obtain the funds. 

She also noted McAuley – while indicating he was “sorry” – was not remorseful, and a presentence report indicated he “minimised” his offending and “blamed” the victim. 

After considering submissions from the Crown and defence, she sentenced McAuley to another stint in jail. 

She also ordered that he be subject to release conditions when he is eventually released. 

McAuley’s relentless scamming 

The victim’s daughter spoke to the Herald ahead of sentencing. 

“He approached her as a tradesperson just starting out in business – he said that he did roofing and guttering work and that her gutters needed attention. 

“He said that he had done some work for some people around the corner, and they were really happy with his work, and he was a good worker. 

“And then from there, he just gained her trust … phone records showed that over 33 days he text and called her 194 times.” 

Sarah said her mother had a condition that made walking painful, which McAuley used to his advantage. 

“The first time, he walked her over to the ATM machine to get the money out,” she explained. 

“And then after he returned and said he had some more work to do … coerced her into handing her card over because she was in too much pain to actually go over. 

“When he came back and he actually had the ATM docket and he counted all the money out for her – just to make out that he was very genuine and trustworthy.” 

The Herald's earlier coverage of serial scammer Dean McAuley. 

McAuley soon started telling the victim hard luck stories to get his hands on more cash – including having a broken down car and no money for repairs, and sleeping in his car and having no money for food. 

“So, she gave him more money, and I think it just sort of escalated from there,” Sarah said. 

“We didn’t know what was going on until a friend of hers got in touch. They went out to lunch together, and her card declined, and this friend knew that wasn’t right. 

“She got her in the car, and she got it out of her. The friend was the one who reported it to the police because mum didn’t want to. 

“Then she got mum down to the bank, and they closed her accounts. From there, we took over.” 

When Sarah found out what was happening, she was horrified – more so when she learned about McAuley’s past. 

“At first I was like, I’m not sure if it’s him because he should still be in jail – and then we found out that he was actually out,” she said. 

“He’d got out early, because of good behaviour. 

“It made me so angry because this person is very good at manipulating people, and obviously, he knows the right things to say and do to get his own way. 

“But he’s not safe to be out – because he just repeats, he just does the same thing again.” 

Dean McAuley in the North Shore District Court in 2013. Photo / Greg Bowker 

Sarah said her mother was deeply affected by McAuley’s offending. 

“She lost a huge amount of weight,” she said. 

“She says that she’s not going to let it affect her – but we can tell that it does, because every now and again something will come up and then she’ll berate herself and say things like ‘I’m just a stupid old lady’ and ‘how could I get fooled’. 

“It’s just broken her confidence.” 

Scammer ‘beyond rehabilitation’ 

Sarah now has control of her mother’s finances, which has also been hard for the once-independent pensioner to accept. 

“She has to come to me if she wants anything above what she would normally spend, which is pretty hard on her,” Sarah said. 

“I know it does annoy her … it does upset her and annoy her that she can’t just have control of her money anymore. 

“But we decided to do that because of what’s happened.” 

Sarah believed McAuley should spend much more time in prison for his offending – given it seems he goes straight back to his tricks as soon as he gets out of prison. 

The victim has been deeply impacted by McAuley's offending. Photo / NZME 

“I want a sentence that reflects the deliberate targeting of elderly women in vulnerable positions,” she said. 

“I know that the court can only hand down a certain sentence, but I would really like to see this addressed – the emotional harm, the ongoing loss of independence that he causes to elderly people because of his actions. 

“And, I would like him to actually see that he has to do his full sentence.” 

Sarah feared her mother would not be McAuley’s last victim. 

“I would like to actually tell him that I don’t believe that he can be rehabilitated – he’s beyond rehabilitation,” she said. 

A litany of offending: McAuley’s scamming 

In 2023, McAuley was jailed for more than two years for offending against two elderly women in 2022 – one of whom was recovering from a severe stroke. 

In 2013, he was sentenced to two years and four months in prison after fleecing an 87-year-old woman out of more than $21,000. 

“It is abundantly plain to me that you need to be detained,” the sentencing judge said. 

“Members of the community, particularly vulnerable elderly ladies, need to be protected from you. 

“[McCauley] is a menace to elderly women, and the sooner his picture is put out in the media so those who are potentially affected by him in the future are aware, the better.” 

The Parole Board has also voiced concerns about McAuley over the years. 

In 2015, the board said McAuley’s appearance was “not very reassuring”, and he was denied parole. 

McAuley is known to accompany his victims to cash machines. Photo / NZME 

“He appeared to have difficulty in comprehending and dealing with questions concerning his offending and his attitude to rehabilitation, and the board is of the view at this stage that he still presents as an undue risk,” the panel convenor said. 

“His home and family are in Auckland, but his wife does not wish to have him back in the family home, given a background of domestic violence and arguing. 

“We are concerned that Mr McAuley has been in prison for a considerable time without any significant rehabilitation initiatives being offered to him.” 

Later that year, he was denied parole again. 

A report provided to the board noted that the scammer’s “low assessed risk limited rehabilitative opportunities”. 

He did not meet the criteria for medium intensity or short rehabilitation programmes or “a psychological service”. 

“It concerns us that the report from the psychologist described ‘steady progress’ and that Mr McAuley was considered ‘to have demonstrated good insight in relation to some aspects of his life’,” the board said. 

“Again, he was unable to articulate any of that despite repeated opportunities. 

“The net result for us today was that we could not be satisfied that Mr McAuley had reduced his risk to a point where it was not undue.” 

The board said McAuley needed to “practise problem solving, particularly generating alternatives, contingency planning and thinking of the consequences”. 

“Should Mr McAuley be able to develop these skills it is likely that he will feel more able and willing to take greater responsibility for his choices and behaviour,” it stated. 

McAuley’s ‘complex spreadsheet of issues’ 

McAuley appeared before the board for a final time in February 2016, ahead of his sentence end date in June, when he legally had to be released from prison. 

At that hearing the board put a number of release conditions in place for the recidivist. 

“He presented to us a quite complex spreadsheet of issues that he needs to focus on in the future to try and keep himself free from further criminal activity,” the final report said. 

McAuley has been jailed repeatedly for ripping off elderly women. Photo / 123rf 

“The board was concerned with the nature of his offending and that it was recidivist offending really targeting elderly women with respect to maintenance projects on their properties and then not ever following through to complete the programmes. 

“He was warned … that if he reoffended he could be expecting a very lengthy sentence.” 

Before the hearing McAuley completed a single session with a psychologist and the board noted while that was “of benefit to him” it was still of the view he posed an undue risk to the safety of the community. 

The offender was asked to complete a short rehab programme before his release – and if that was not possible, urged him to “focus on the things he has learned from the psychologist to consolidate the skills that hopefully he has acquired during that one-on-one”. 

“We want him to entrench the gains and skills that he has learned and to show stability and positive change over the remaining few months,” the board said. 

“We hope that when he is released from prison.” 

In 2022 he started offending again. 

Anna Leask is a senior journalist who covers national crime and justice. She joined the Herald in 2008 and has worked as a journalist for 20 years with a particular focus on family and gender-based violence, child abuse, sexual violence, homicides, mental health and youth crime. She writes, hosts and produces the award-winning podcast A Moment In Crime, released monthly on nzherald.co.nz