Zac Guildford lied and conned a friend out of $60,000 after earlier blaming a relative as part of his attempts to hide ripping off his grandfather.

The former All Black can now be revealed as the prominent sportsman who was facing fraud charges after his name suppression was lifted in the Masterton District Court today. He was sentenced to home detention for his crimes.

The Herald had earlier revealed the sportsman lost money on online gambling sites and stole money from his grandfather to fuel his "secret gambling addiction".

According to the summary of facts, Guildford tricked his friend into giving him $60,000 to cover legal costs for an alleged "defamation" case he was taking out, supposedly against the New Zealand Herald.

Police claim he made assurances to the victim that he would pay him back and would get compensation after he "wins" the alleged defamation suit.

The summary, which was read in a January hearing, noted that in May last year he created fictitious conversations with the "lawyer" between his personal phone and his work phone and would send screenshots to the friend to add to his "credibility".

Former All Black Zac Guildford in the dock at Masterton District Court in January. Photo / Jack Crossland

Guildford gave his friend two bank accounts, claiming one was for the lawyer and one was a personal account and said that his friend would receive $65,000 back when he won.

The sportsman was due to be sentenced for the other charges in January, but Judge Bruce Davidson adjourned the hearing until today because of the additional charge.

• Zac Guildford receives home detention after stealing from grandfather, friend

The sportsman's other crimes left his grandfather in tens of thousands of dollars in debt, court documents show.

Facts released to the Herald by a judge revealed the sportsman lost money on online gambling sites - and stole money from his grandfather - to fuel his "secret gambling addiction".

The man had transferred a total of $41,400 from his grandfather's iPad to his own account between March 30 and April 9, 2021.

That amount consisted of nine separate transfers, the largest of which was $10,000.

According to the summary of facts, Guildford had been living with his 77-year-old grandfather at a rural property.

On April 1, 2021 the grandfather went to check his bank account details on his iPad and noticed the Westpac Banking app had been deleted from the screen.

When the grandfather asked Guildford if he knew anything about the app being deleted, the sportsman said it must have been the younger grandchildren who had deleted it.

Former All Black Zac Guildford can now be revealed as the prominent sportsman who was facing fraud charges. Photo / Paul Taylor

Over the next five to 10 days the grandfather allegedly asked his grandson to reinstall the banking app onto his iPad, but each time, he made excuses about why he couldn't do it.

Nine days later, the grandfather phoned Westpac to check his account balance only to discover his credit card was $29,000 in debt.

Bank inquiries revealed large sums of money had been transferred from the grandfather's credit card account to the grandfather's cheque account, and then had been immediately transferred to the sportsman's ASB account.

On April 6, the sportsman transferred $7500 back into his grandfather's account.

Guildford also pretended to be his grandfather on three occasions, to convince the bank to increase the credit limit or ensure that transactions went through.

After the dishonesty was discovered, the grandfather approached the sportsman about the missing money but he never returned his calls or went back to his house. According to court documents, the sportsman confessed to his mother what he had done.

The sportsman still owes his grandfather $34,000 and reparation is being sought. It is unknown whether the bank will cover the grandfather's loss.

Guildford's grandmother told the Herald in January she hadn't heard from her grandson since August last year and didn't want to comment.