Francis Peters pleaded guilty to four charges of obtaining by deception
The North Shore District Court has sentenced lawyer Francis Peters to nine-and-a-half months of home detention due to his part in a mortgage fraud scheme, reported the NZ Herald.
Peters, who also goes by Frank Peters, pleaded guilty to four charges of obtaining by deception. Four members of his immediate family were charged as well.
According to Judge Paul Murray, Peters made a series of untrue declarations and mortgage ramping in relation to an Auckland property transaction in which Westpac advanced $1.35m. The Serious Fraud Office (SFO) charged five members of Peters’ family over a reported series of complex mortgage and investment fraud schemes worth $8.6m.
Prosecutors said the schemes revolved around the use of fake buyers, quick resales and fraudulent information to boost the values of six residential properties and pick up big mortgages. An investor also supposedly put in $1.8m that was in part based on an insurance policy that was forged. The investment was reportedly intended for offshore private banks.
Francis first got involved in the matter when he tried to recover a $100,000 loan given to his brother Gerard. Gerard had pitched the house deal as a way to repay the loan, as per Francis’ lawyer Sam Lowery.
Francis was charged due to his role in one transaction. In addition to Francis and Gerard, mother Serene and brothers Christopher and Robert face charges as well. Lowery argued in court that Gerard was “the real villain in these proceedings” as per a statement published by the Herald, but Murray rejected the defence, pointing out that Francis was a practising lawyer.
“You were someone who should have known better. I do not accept you were blindly following your brother. Rather you were blinded by greed”, Murray said in a statement published by the Herald.
Lowery said that the prosecution had cost Peters his job – he was an in-house employment lawyer at Fonterra until late 2023. Murray noted that Peters was also in the thick of disciplinary proceedings with the Law Society – proceedings that could result in Peters losing his licence to practise.
Peters is assisting the SFO on the rest of the investigation; thus, prosecutor Honor Lanham said that a lighter sentence would be appropriate. While Peters was unlikely to be asked to give testimony at trial, she said that he had done an interview after he was charged and had acquiesced to waiving privilege on some legal documents related to the property transaction.
Serene and Gerard skipped the country before charges were laid down, and warrants for their arrests have been issued. The rest of the defendants are set to stand trial in February 2026.
