Victims Try To Sting Convicted Fraudster With Facebook Campaign
July 16, 2016 | Fraud
A convicted fraudster has become the target of a campaign by former victims to make his offending and past tactics widely known.
Craig Anthony Lowe, 36, has more than 70 convictions for fraud, theft and taking pecuniary advantage over the last 12 years.
He was sentenced to two years imprisonment in 2009 for obtaining $30,000 using fraud and was recently released from a six month prison sentence for his latest offending.
A woman caught in that offending, who wanted to remain anonymous, said Lowe emptied her bank account and stole her car after he moved in with her in Papamoa, in June last year.
"One of my first impressions of him was that he was friendly, outgoing, he related really, really well to my son who has disabilities."
Lowe agreed to pay a bond and rent in advance when he moved in, but never did, providing excuses about the hold up getting money, the woman said.
"Meanwhile he is sitting around not doing anything, he's got no money and I'm preparing dinner for son and I couldn't not offer him food."
He would ask her to buy KFC and he would message her from his bedroom asking if he could borrow money from her - his excuse was his girlfriend at the time had his eftpos card and she had overspent, she said.
But he got along with her son who had multiple disabilities, mainly autism, and was very helpful around the house, she said.
Over the course of a month, Lowe continually gave excuses about why he had no money.
"Then one day in my naivety and my stupidity probably, I needed to urgently get some stuff for my son... I said to Craig 'can you take my car and take my card.. and I want you to get these three things," she said.
"And he never came back."
She checked her online banking and he had completely cleared her accounts of around $700.
Lowe came back when he thought she wasn't home but he had already allegedly gambled her money away at a bar in Papamoa.
"It wasn't a lot, but it was money I had saved for my daughters upcoming 21st party," she said.
She rang the police and Lowe was charged with theft, she said.
"I'm quite a trusting person, I felt really stupid.
"He was in my home and I trusted him, and I trusted him with my son and I would have thought that I would have made better decisions as a parent to look after my kids," she said.
"I just feel like I've really let my son down and there's been quite a lot of trauma around that."
Now Tauranga woman, Nikki Signal, has created a Facebook page alerting people to Lowe's history of offending.
"I just wanted people to know. Everybody so far that he's targeted has been single females and solo parents that are the least ones who can afford it," Signal said.
Signal said Lowe moved in with her after he saw her advertisement for a flat mate on Trade Me. After a successful interview, he was supposed to pay a two week bond up front but said he had lost his eftpos card, she said.
"He told me that he was a well off businessman, he owned his own management company, he was just expanding his business to move to Tauranga because he was originally based in Wellington and money wasn't an issue."
He kept giving excuses for a week. A suspect Signal then went into his room and found a bare minimum of clothes and a community services card.
She google searched his name and found an article published in 2009 where Lowe was sentenced to two years in prison for serious fraud charges.
"He was really, really plausible with all of his stories, he was even telling me about all the equipment that he owned," Signal said.
"He really does seem incredibly believable."
Victims have reached out to Signal through the Facebook page, telling their own stories of being ripped off by Lowe.
An old acquaintance who wanted only to be named as Jay said he knew Lowe when he was in his 20's.
"He came across as a really, really nice guy you know, intelligent, stylish and really good with his words - he could sell ice to an eskimo you know, he was really on to it."
"He's been ripping people off for as long as I remember, even back then. One of my mates told me a story about how he [Lowe] ripped a gang member off and managed to talk his way out of it. That's how good he is, he's really good with his words."
"Just be a lot more careful of who you're dealing with, regardless of how good they sound, how well they're dressed and intelligence... Because someone like Craig, he could fool anyone."
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- Article originally on stuff.co.nz.
