“You are a serial fraudster. You’ve been playing this game for more than a decade.”

Those are the words a judge used to describe notorious Christchurch fraudster Brendon Karl Dean Harris before jailing him for his latest crime spree, which saw him scam more than $350,000 from his unsuspecting victims.

Harris appeared in Christchurch District Court today facing 10 charges of causing loss by deception and three of attempting to cause loss by deception.

Using other people’s cellphone sim cards, Harris called banks and other companies purporting to be the owner of the sim card in an effort to gain access to his victims’ bank accounts and then steal money from them.

One victim was saving for his wife’s cancer treatment.

Harris’ lawyer, Thomas Harre, said Westpac had reimbursed all account holders who were targeted by his client, but he acknowledged that it was a significant loss.

It was clear Harris had addiction issues for which he needed rehabilitative treatment, Harre said, questioning what kind of support he would get from prison.

Harris previously worked as part of a group to con elderly victims out of $600,000. Photo / STAR MEDIA

“My concern is that without a proper crack at rehab Mr Harris is going to be sitting in front of you again sir,” Harre told the judge.

Crown prosecutor Courtney Martyn said one victim described Harris’ offending as devious and that they had never felt more vulnerable.

Martyn said the offending was “highly premeditated, sophisticated” and almost identical to his previous crimes.

She said banks and various companies had now made changes to their policies following Harris’ scams.

The only outcome should be one of imprisonment, Martyn submitted, noting Harris was on parole for previous scams targeting elderly females who live alone.

Judge Campbell Savage said Harris had been given a “number of opportunities” to change his ways, but continued to dive back into reoffending as soon as he was released from prison.

“You must have known the impact that your offending would have on unsuspecting victims, but you went ahead and did it regardless.”

Judge Savage said he didn’t put a lot of weight on Harris’ claim that he wanted to rehabilitate himself as he talked “a mean game” but his actions said something different.

He gave Harris discounts for his guilty pleas and personal background, noting he grew up in an environment where criminal behaviour was normalised.

The judge sentenced Harris to three years and six months imprisonment and ordered him to make an emotional harm payment.

Because Harris has spent almost two years in custody it is likely he will go before the Parole Board almost immediately.

Judge Savage urged him to be honest with the board and follow through with rehabilitation.

The ‘sophisticated’ offending

According to the summary of facts, police were approached by Vodafone in August 2021 regarding several unauthorised sim swaps and sim porting occurrences involving their customers.

Police launched Operation Apollo and early in the investigation it became apparent - due to voice calls made to Vodafone, various banks, and utility companies - that Harris was involved,

Harris was no stranger to police, having previously been jailed as part of a $600,000 scam of the elderly.

In regards to the recent offending, on June 19, 2021, one victim listed their BMW for sale with a price tag of $149,000.

He provided his bank account details to a person who messaged him about the car and a day later noticed his cellphone had stopped working. He tried to block his accounts but this was unsuccessful.

Over a five-day period there were nine unauthorised withdrawals from his bank account, totalling $56,000. These funds were transferred into mule accounts.

Another victim received a call from an unknown man in September 2021 purporting to be from the Westpac fraud department.

The man said increases had been made to the victim’s credit limits on some accounts and he requested a verification code sent to his cellphone which the victim provided.

Harris then called Westpac pretending to be the victim. He said he had bought a new computer and his customer ID number was not saved on his device. He was provided with his ID number and then successfully requested to change his pin number.

After correctly answering several detailed verification questions, Harris added four payees to the account.

Eventually, the victim realised $147,580.16 had been transferred from his account into four separate mule accounts.

In total, the offending left the banks out of pocket by more than $350,000.

Harris also set up a fraudulent Trade Me account in the name of a victim who had their driver’s licence stolen during a burglary in Christchurch.

He tried to buy a $96,000 Tesla, asking the owner to send photos of his and his wife’s driver’s licence. He then tried to get a $30,000 loan from the bank using their credentials but was unsuccessful.