Chirag Harilal Mistry, a former property manager in Auckland, has had his home detention sentence extended after he swindled another $112,000 from Ray White. Mistry, 33, had already stolen approximately $225,000 from the company’s franchises between 2016 and 2021, bringing the total amount stolen to an estimated $337,000.
At his sentencing hearing in Auckland District Court, Judge Kevin Glubb expressed regret over the situation, noting that Mistry’s wife had left him after his arrest. Mistry admitted to using fraudulent invoices and altering bank account details to divert funds from Ray White franchises, all to fund his gambling habit. He gambled the money away at SkyCity Casino, where he lost it all.
Court documents reveal that Mistry exploited cloud-based software used by Ray White to process billing. Using his own login credentials and those of his co-workers, he submitted false invoices for maintenance work, rerouting payments to his personal bank account. Between June and October 2022, he completed 12 fraudulent transactions and changed the bank details of 16 landlords on 35 occasions, stealing another $39,000 before his scheme was uncovered.
Mistry had resigned from Ray White on October 28, 2022, but continued using unauthorized logins to manipulate the software for several months. He was sentenced in Manukau District Court in August to nine months’ home detention for a previous $225,000 theft from a different Ray White franchise.
While Mistry has since self-banned himself from SkyCity Casino and pleaded guilty to the latest charges, the court noted the significant breach of trust in his actions. Mistry’s defense lawyer, Malia Fuamatu, argued for a lesser sentence, but the prosecutor sought an uplift for his prior offenses and for offending while on bail.
Judge Glubb ultimately canceled Mistry’s previous home detention sentence and imposed a new 12-month home detention term, along with 100 hours of community work. He warned that Mistry was lucky to avoid a prison sentence, given the potential damage his actions could have caused to the business and its reputation.
