Latest news with #deception
RNZ News
42 minutes ago
- RNZ News
Nurse defrauds victims out of $112,000, claims her mum is dead and jets off to Taylor Swift
By Belinda Feek, Open Justice reporter of Taylor Swift performs in Sydney. Photo: AFP / David Gray A nurse who took more than $100,000 from three sympathetic colleagues after claiming her mother had died and her dad was sick spent the money on gambling and trips overseas. She even attended a Taylor Swift concert in Sydney and a Yankees game and Justin Timberlake concert in New York. Angelina Nicole Therese Avisado Reyes, a nurse at Waikato District Health Board at the time, was so persistent with one victim that he ended up transferring $107,000 to her over six months. That victim cashed in investments, withdrew savings and handed over part of his inheritance from a dead grandparent, after Reyes claimed she had tried to commit suicide because she was so stressed. Reyes, who no longer works at the DHB, eventually fessed up and told him she'd lost $18,000 of his money gambling. The 33-year-old appeared in the Hamilton District Court recently, where she pleaded guilty to three charges of obtaining by deception, one of which was representative, after taking $112,000 from her colleagues. Her counsel, Raewyn Sporle, asked Judge Noel Cocurullo not to enter convictions as she would be applying for a Section 106 discharge without conviction at her sentencing in October. Reyes, who is now on bail, unsuccessfully challenged a media request for a copy of court documents detailing her offending. A judge granted NZME permission to have them. Hamilton District Court. Photo: According to those documents, the first victim was made aware by her manager in early December 2023 that Reyes' mother in the Philippines was sick and in hospital. In March 2024, she was told Reyes' mother had died. When she later saw Reyes and noticed she was crying they spoke. Later that morning, the victim got a message from Reyes saying her mother had died, she had no money, and couldn't afford a burial plot in the Philippines for her. After speaking to her husband, the victim agreed to transfer $2000 to Reyes. Around the end of the month, the second victim saw Reyes and noticed she seemed distracted, was always on her phone, and asked if she was all right. Reyes said her mother in the Philippines was sick. Over the next couple of weeks, Reyes said her mother had a heart attack, was hospitalised, then discharged, then later readmitted, and then died. Another time, she said her father had been hospitalised with a "brain problem" and that it was "very serious". On 11 April, the victim got a Facebook message from Reyes saying she was back home, her father was in hospital, and asking if she could borrow some money and that she would pay her back on payday. When asked how much she needed, Reyes said $3000. In January 2024, Reyes told the third victim her mother was in hospital and needed $10,000 for the cost of heart surgery. She contacted him a week later saying her mother had a heart attack and she needed the money "immediately", but it was now going to cost $90,000 for the surgery and hospital expenses. She asked for $35,000. At the time, the victim didn't have the money directly, so he cashed in some investments and withdrew some savings totalling $36,000. Reyes promised to pay him back by the end of the year. On 11 February, she advised her boss that her mother had died during surgery and told several other colleagues over the following days. Immigration records revealed Reyes flew to Sydney overnight on 23 February to attend a Taylor Swift concert. During this time, she'd also falsely claimed two weeks of bereavement leave. On 9 March, Reyes contacted the victim again, saying she needed $1000 that day to pay the funeral director to have her mother's body released, but said she needed it in e-vouchers, due to sending it to the Philippines. She was back in touch again on 6 May, saying her father now needed surgery and required $6000. The victim was only able to transfer $1000. The victim inherited more than $60,000 from a deceased grandparent on 10 May, and told Reyes he could loan her more money if required. She asked for $40,000, which they agreed to transfer. Three days later, Reyes asked for another $10,000 to travel home to see her sick father. In July, she contacted the victim again, saying she was in the Philippines and had been hospitalised after trying to commit suicide and had incurred a debt of $30,000. The victim didn't have that much and instead transferred her $600 and gave her a $400 Paysafe card. He then cashed up more investments as he wanted to help her and put $18,000 in her account. However, Immigration records showed she was in New York between 16 June and 14 July last year, and attended a Yankees baseball game and a Justin Timberlake concert. On 23 July, she called the victim and told him she owed lawyers $100,000 and if she didn't pay it, her father would go to jail. She also claimed to be suicidal again. The victim said he didn't have any money, but Reyes told him to tell his parents he had been scammed out of the money. However, he declined to do that. The next day, she video-called the victim and said she had flights booked back to New Zealand but couldn't leave the country until she paid the $100,000. She later told him she had lied about owing the $100,000, and had lost $18,000 gambling. Reyes siphoned $107,200 from that victim alone due to the stories she had told him. When questioned by police, Reyes said she had a "big gambling problem". She also admitted lying about her mother's death, that her father was sick, and that she had attempted suicide so the victim would give her money. Reyes also confirmed that her mother and father were "alive and well" in the Philippines. * This story originally appeared in the New Zealand Herald .
Wall Street Journal
11 hours ago
- Entertainment
- Wall Street Journal
Mysteries: ‘Don't Let Him In' and ‘Murder Takes a Vacation'
Midway through Lisa Jewell's 'Don't Let Him In,' two friends, Martha and Grace, meet for lunch. When Martha describes how attentive her previously errant boyfriend has become, Grace is relieved but still skeptical. 'I thought it was going to end up that he was one of those blokes you read about,' she admits. 'The ones who marry loads of women and lie to everyone and steal all their money.' That fairly sums up the deceptions at the core of this subtly layered British thriller, but it's not the whole story. For the crimes perpetrated here, including murder, are part of a larger mosaic, one that depicts the intersecting lives of three female characters so vividly that we feel, at times, more like voyeurs than readers. Their intimate thoughts become as familiar to us as their occasionally messy households. The dishes piled in the sink, the morning scramble, the sudden silence of an emptied house: Ms. Jewell captures these moments, as she does the doubts and fears of the residents. One such is Ash (short for Aisling), a young woman who 'feels the thud and canter of time running by as her early twenties bleed into her late twenties and thirty appears heavy on the horizon.' She's still reeling from the death of her father—who was pushed under a train by an apparently deranged stranger—when her mother, Nina, welcomes handsome Nick Radcliffe into their seaside home. Nick claims to have known Ash's father, but she is wary of the charmer with 'neat cuticles and defined muscles and a brand-new haircut.' Ash wonders: 'Why has this man never been married?' The reader knows that he is married (a fact revealed at the outset), and much more, because alternating chapters of the novel are narrated by this consummate liar. We see the world both as it is, therefore, and through his eyes. We see the world both as it is and through his eyes. 'They are my puppets now in so many ways,' Nick gloats—with a touch of melodrama—when he begins spying on Nina's family, 'and I am their master.' As Nick's deceptions multiply, we fear for his victims—chief among them Tara, a successful businesswoman who almost outwits him, and Martha, the sweet-natured florist who might have been his salvation—and brace ourselves for the unmasking of a con artist who remains defiant to the last. 'You all wanted me,' he silently protests when finally cornered. 'You all had gaping voids in your lives. . . . I did not force one of you to choose me.' By then, Ash has uncovered the truth, if not the bodies, though Ms. Jewell shocks us with one final twist. Over the course of more than 20 novels, she has perfected such denouements. The enduring appeal of her fiction, however, resides not in its cleverness, but in the atmosphere of intimate unease that Ms. Jewell—like her forebear Ruth Rendell—so expertly creates.
CNA
3 days ago
- CNA
Boy, 17, accused of deceiving ex-schoolmate into degrading acts, such as drinking own urine
SINGAPORE: Two 17-year-old boys were charged in court on Wednesday (Jun 18) for alleged crimes against their former schoolmate, with one accused of deceiving the male victim into soaking his genitals in chilli oil and consuming his own urine. The two accused youths are also said to have extorted money from the alleged victim by threatening to distribute compromising videos of him. The teenagers and the alleged victim cannot be named as their identities are protected under a gag order imposed by the court. The victim's age was not revealed in court documents. The youths, both Singaporeans, were handed four and two charges respectively. The teenager facing more charges is also accused of cheating the alleged victim into performing humiliating acts. His four charges comprise one count of distributing intimate recordings, one count of cheating, one count of cheating and inducing dishonest delivery of property, and one count of extortion. He is said to have conspired with the co-accused in the latter two charges. The alleged offences by the first teenager were carried out over a period of more than a year. Between February and December 2023, the teenager was said to have tricked his former schoolmate into believing that the victim was conversing with a woman over Instagram. The accused allegedly induced the victim to perform seven degrading acts, in addition to sending him gift cards and S$390 (US$300). The degrading acts consist of the victim soaking his private parts in a bowl of chilli oil for two minutes; rubbing salt onto his genitals; consuming his own urine, performing a sexual act in front of a camera; playing football naked; cutting and burning his hair with a lighter; and eating butter, cheese and chilli padi. Between February and June 2023, the accused allegedly distributed the victim's intimate recordings, knowing that it would cause him humiliation. In July 2023, the accused allegedly conspired with the second teenager to extort S$2,450 from the victim by threatening to distribute videos of him performing a sexual act. The teen's last charge is for conspiring with the same co-accused to cheat the victim into believing that a gang leader was demanding money from him, around May last year. The victim allegedly handed over S$300 as a result. The two charges that the co-accused faces are for conspiring in the extortion and the cheating offence involving the tale about the gang leader. After being handed the charges, the teen accused of the more serious offences indicated to the court that he was not guilty. His case was adjourned to Jul 16 for his lawyer to make representations. In the meantime, he was offered bail on the condition that he continues to attend school, resides with his parents, and is electronically tagged, among other requirements. In contrast, the co-accused indicated his intention to plead guilty. He is expected to do so on Jul 30. He was then offered bail with the same conditions. Extortion carries a jail term of between two and seven years, with caning. Cheating and dishonestly inducing delivery of property carries a jail term of up to 10 years and a fine, while cheating carries a jail term of up to three years, or a fine, or both. Distributing or threatening to distribute intimate images or recordings carries a jail term of up to five years, or a fine, or caning, or any combination of the penalties.
Daily Mail
3 days ago
- Daily Mail
Australian man allegedly faked cancer to scam loved ones out of over $1million
A 30-year-old Australian man has been charged after allegedly deceiving his family into thinking he had cancer and scamming them out of more than $1million. Victoria Police allege the man spent the proceeds from the sale of the family's home in Alfredton, a suburb of Ballarat, before attempting to cover up the loss. He allegedly told his family he used the money to fund an investment expected to return a $2m profit. When he couldn't produce the money, he allegedly concocted a story he had been diagnosed with cancer and had been the victim of fraud. Police allege he then deceived his family members into handing over more than $1.2m, including by creating fake email accounts and impersonating two lawyers. He also allegedly used a fraudulent document to obtain a new car from a Horsham dealership, in western Victoria, worth $69,830. Police arrested the 30-year-old in Ararat, in Victoria's central highlands, on July 8 last year where he was charged with 28 offences following a prolonged investigation. Among the charges are ten counts of obtain property by deception and 13 counts of make a false document. He is expected to appear before Horsham Magistrate's Court on June 25.
RNZ News
3 days ago
- RNZ News
Australian man charged after allegedly faking cancer to scam his family out of millions
Photo: Google Street View A 30-year-old West Australian man has been charged after allegedly fooling his family into thinking he had cancer and scammed them out of more than $2 million. Police allege the man spent the profits from the sale of the family's home in the Ballarat suburb of Alfredton before trying to hide the loss by claiming he had made an investment that would make him another $2m. When the money was not produced the man allegedly lied that he had been given a cancer diagnosis and was a victim of fraud. Police alleged the man then his deceived relatives into handing over $1.2m and created false email accounts and impersonated two different lawyers to back up his claims. The man is also accused of using a fraudulent document to buy a new car worth $69,830 from a Horsham dealership. The man was first arrested in Ararat, 200 kilometres west of Melbourne, on July 8, 2024. Following an investigation by the Horsham Family Violence Investigation Unit, he has now been charged with 28 offences, including 10 counts of obtaining property by deception and 13 counts of make a false document. The man is expected to face the Horsham Magistrates Court on June 25. - ABC
