A failed developer, described by a judge as heartless, has been sentenced to 19 months in prison for duping a South Auckland family into property deals that have left them facing bankruptcy.
Glenn William Cooper had earlier pleaded guilty to five dishonesty charges in relation to transactions worth$812,000.
In the Manukau District Court on Friday, Judge Stan Thorburn said Cooper had targeted the Ketu'u family as "gullible".
The judge said Cooper had inflated sale prices, prepared fraudulent documents to hide his ownership of the properties from buyers and banks and pocketed more than $100,000 in profit.
"If it all went down the gurgler it would be the people he had sold to who would sustain the losses through forced sales and inability to service the mortgages that they had obtained through his process. And it's heartless, and it's incredibly selfish and self-centred."
Family spokesperson Samisoni Ketu'u said a message needs to be sent to those like Cooper to stop using vulnerable, poor people.
Cooper is appealing against his sentence.