The debilitating effects of identity fraud committed by a drug-using former Waka Kotahi contract worker have left a man without his corporate career and forced to rely on his parents for accommodation.
David Davies was sentenced in the Palmerston North District Court on Thursday. Photo: RNZ / Jimmy Ellingham
In the Palmerston North District Court today, David Allan Davies was jailed for dishonestly accessing Transport Agency systems and changing records when he worked there in 2018.
The 38-year-old, from Levin, also created fake IDs under other people's names, obtaining tens of thousands of dollars in credit.
He claimed he was coerced into his offending by gang members calling in drugs debts from a boarder who lived with his mother, saying he was threatened with violence if he did not change the Waka Kotahi records or obtain money, although Judge Bruce Northwood rejected that.
The former boarder told police Davies used drugs himself, regularly sitting in his room smoking methamphetamine. He changed licence details in exchange for methamphetamine.
One of the victims of identity fraud was Auckland man David Kerr, under whose name Davies racked up $26,000 of debt.
Earlier this year during a previous attempt to sentence Davies, Kerr said the offending caused his credit rating to drop from perfect to poor, and cancelled his pre-approval to buy a house.
Due to the stress Kerr resigned from a corporate job and then could not find other work involving handling money, so had turned to driving trucks and heavy machinery.
"I've lost over 50 percent of my wage."
Kerr couldn't understand why he was targeted. "I only realised something was wrong when my pre-approved home loan was called in by my bank."
Kerr had to move back in with his parents, saying that made him feel like a failure as a man in his mid-30s.
The effects of Davies' offending continued, as Kerr struggled to convince credit agencies he was a victim of identity theft.
"I don't even have enough credit to purchase a simple thing like buying a microwave... Unfortunately this guy will always be in my life. I'll never forget him, unfortunately."
Judge Northwood said today that some of Davies' offending was clearly for his own benefit, such as obtaining credit from Fonterra farm supplies, seemingly to feed his pets.
And he changed his own records to get off a charge of driving while disqualified.
Judge Northwood jailed him for two years, five months and two weeks after Davies previously admitted 21 dishonesty charges.
Davies' identity fraud netted $53,000 credit from his victims, while he attempted to gain another $98,000.
The judge noted the effect of Davies' crimes on Kerr.
"He was a complete stranger to you and before his life was impacted by what you did to him he had solid personal circumstances and a good job."
Waka Kotahi also filed a victim impact statement, saying Davies' offending resulted in damage to its reputation and caused mistrust among staff placed under suspicion.
Davies' lawyer Kila Pedder argued for home detention.
Among the reasons was Davies was his mother's primary caregiver.
But the judge said their relationship did not appear healthy and there had been 111 reports of family harm incidents between them to police.
Pre-sentence reports differed about Davies' drug use - he denied it, although his mother contradicted him.
Pedder said Davies was remorseful, had contacted credit companies to explain his offending, and attended a restorative justice meeting with Kerr.
Crown prosecutor Guy Carter said Davies should be sent to prison and showed no genuine remorse.
"It's the Crown position that this defendant continues to minimise his offending and, in particular, he minimises his reasons for offending."
Judge Northwood declined to impose reparation because Davies had no means to pay it.
In a statement a Waka Kotahi spokesperson said Davies "unlawfully accessed personal information from the Driver Licence Register and from the Motor Vehicle Register, including customers' names, addresses, dates of birth and driver licence details".
"Mr Davies was immediately dismissed from working at Waka Kotahi and we immediately initiated, and completed, an investigation. The Office of the Privacy Commissioner was also notified and Waka Kotahi assisted the NZ police with their investigation."
Waka Kotahi checked the information for affected people to make sure it was correct, and reviewed and tightened internal processes to prevent unauthorised access to its systems.
It has tighter controls about who had access to that information, and more audits, reports and checks.