An Auckland man is joining his brother in prison for his role in a "sophisticated, large-scale fraud" involving forged documents in a bid to obtain more than $2 million.
Andrew Shipton – also known as Adrian Ngwun – pleaded guilty to four charges of receiving more than $1000 and 13 charges of using a forged document, Inland Revenue said today in a statement.
He was sentenced in the Manukau District Court on November 3 to three years in prison.
On July 14, Shipton's brother Nicholas Ngwun was sentenced to five and a half years in prison for his role in the same offending.
District Court Judge Yelavich said Nicholas Ngwun was the "ringleader" of the operation who brought his brother Andrew Shipton into the fold.
Ngwun controlled at least 33 myIR accounts and tried to get more than $2 million from tax and Covid support.
He had purchased personal and credit card information on the dark web, which he then used to make fraudulent claims in Covid support applications, GST and income tax returns.
Shipton’s face appeared on some of the fake licences that his brother created. On five separate occasions between February and May 2023, Shipton set up and verified the accounts by visiting banks and posing as those people.
He presented the bank with fake drivers’ licences, community services cards, and various utilities and service letters as proof of address – all of them fraudulently produced by Ngwun.
He then made various bank and ATM withdrawals to get cash his brother had falsely applied for, withdrawing $28,000 in total.
At the time, Shipton was either on electronically monitored bail or on home detention in relation to separate offending. His visits to the banks were verified through CCTV footage, cell phone data and Corrections monitoring data.
Judge Yelavich handed Shipton a starting sentence of three years, with a further three months added for other offending, and a further five months for offending while on home detention and on bail.
After giving discounts for his guilty plea and his efforts at rehabilitation while in custody, Shipton's sentence was reduced to three years' imprisonment.
AI the 'new frontier of digital offending'
Inland Revenue information security leader Jay Harris said AI and other digital tools were becoming more commonplace to manipulate documents.
"Ngwun and Shipton’s offending is evidence of that and represents the new frontier of digital offending," Harris said.
However, Harris said people attempting similar offending "shouldn’t assume they can go on undetected".
"Inland Revenue has access to a wide range of information and works with other organisations to identify fraud and hold those responsible to account.
"Inland Revenue will not hesitate to take action against fraudsters like Ngwun and Shipton."
The government department has prosecuted more than 20 people for fraud involving the Small Business Cashflow Loan Scheme, the Covid Support Payment and Resurgence Support Payment.
Thirteen further cases were progressing through the court system, and investigations were continuing around other Covid support fraud allegations.
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