{"id":18573,"date":"2026-09-22T12:17:27","date_gmt":"2026-09-22T00:17:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/?p=18573"},"modified":"2026-09-22T12:17:27","modified_gmt":"2026-09-22T00:17:27","slug":"dunedin-man-loses-500000-in-18-year-romance-scam","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/?p=18573","title":{"rendered":"Dunedin man loses $500,000 in 18-year romance scam"},"content":{"rendered":"
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A Dunedin man thought he was having a romantic online relationship with an Australian police recruit and sent her $500,000 over 18-years, in the hope they could one day be together.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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But, in reality the woman was in Auckland, unemployed and living rent-free with her mother.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Instead of spending the cash on moving to Dunedin to be with the man – who eventually ran out of funds and developed cancer – she spent his money on food, shopping and paying off her personal debts.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Her offending only stopped when the man’s daughter took over his finances, due to his declining health from cancer.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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The 44-year-old, who has continued name suppression, pleaded guilty to a representative charge of obtaining by deception when she appeared in the Auckland District Court on Wednesday.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Prosecutors lay a representative charge when they allege the offending happened on more than one occasion.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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The summary of facts, released to RNZ, shows the offending happened much more than once – it continued for years and involved elaborate back stories and even an invented health scare on her part.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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The woman admitted obtaining over $525,000 between 2006 to 2024.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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The court document shows the victim is a Dunedin man, aged in his late 60s.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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The pair met online in 2006.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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She told the man her name was Amy Skyers and that she was a police recruit living in the Gold Coast, Australia.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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She sent him photos of an athletic model, implying they were her. The victim believed her, commenting on how great she looked.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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They began an online relationship, with the victim depositing small amounts into the woman’s accounts.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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The couple would have intimate discussions either online or over the phone.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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The man would physically deposit cash into an ASB bank account given to him by the woman, which appeared under her real name on the victim’s bank statements.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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When he asked who that was, she said it was her friend, who would then transfer the money through to her. She said it was necessary to avoid paying more into an Australian bank account.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Amy Skyers told the man she was planning on moving to Dunedin so she could be with him … she just needed money for tickets and a shipping container.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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She went so far as to send a blurred image of a fake travel itinerary she sourced from the internet.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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As the move grew closer, the woman made up various excuses as to why she could not relocate to Dunedin.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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These included needing to sell her belongings or requesting to be transferred by her work.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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In reality, the woman was living rent-free in Auckland with her mother, and was unemployed.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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She would make up situations, asking the victim to urgently send her money.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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“Skyers” would tell the man she faced being kicked out of her rental, or would need to pay double the rent if it wasn’t paid immediately. The man obliged and sent her the money.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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In 2021, she told the man she was in hospital with a cyst on her vulva, spinning a yarn that she had been a foster child with a traumatic upbringing.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Court documents reveal this was all an attempt to convince the man to pay for her ‘operation’.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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While he empathised with her, the man said he could not pay because he was retiring in the near future and had cancer.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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On one occasion, he told the woman he had no more money to share and was financially struggling.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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The woman said she could not return the funds as she would be evicted from where she was staying.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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She added that her friend, who she said was moving the cash, would be assaulted by her partner if the money was returned.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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The woman continued to ask for money, telling the man it was for rent, flights, petrol, and other items.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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The summary of facts said she actually spent the money on shopping, laybuy repayments, and food.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Some of the money was spent on petrol.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Between January 2006 and April 2024 the victim sent $525,537.10 to the woman’s bank account.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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That was made up of 1149 separate transactions from the man into her bank account.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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In November 2021, the woman asked for $5000 to pay for a shipping container and flights so she could relocate from Australia to Dunedin and be with the man.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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He was reluctant until the woman provided documents that she said showed she was in discussions with a shipping company.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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The man paid a further $5000.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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By December 2021, New Zealand was still in the grips of Covid-19 travel restrictions.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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The woman told the man she was flying into New Zealand but her arrival would be delayed by two weeks, as she would need to spend time in a managed isolation facility.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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She asked for more money to move to Dunedin and the man sent her a further $3050.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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The offending only ended when the man’s daughter took control over his financial affairs at the start of 2024, as his health deteriorated.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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As well as his cancer, there were also concerns raised about dementia.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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His daughter restricted his ability to pay the woman, and the payments stopped along with the communication between the two.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Court documents show the woman later admitted to deceiving the man and stated everything she said was a lie to trick him into believing they were in a relationship.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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“She never intended to move to Dunedin,” it said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Explaining why she scammed the man, the woman said she was young when it first began and that she was financially motivated.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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The police are asking a district court judge to order the woman to pay reparations.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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In court, the woman’s lawyer, Marek Hamlin, said she was doing what she could to find work, in order to pay back some of the money.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Judge Kathryn Maxwell remanded the woman on bail.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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She is due to be sentenced in February, 2027.<\/p>\n

Source: RNZ<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A Dunedin man thought he was having a romantic online relationship with an Australian police recruit and sent her $500,000 over 18-years, in the hope they could one day be together. But, in reality the woman was in Auckland, unemployed and living rent-free with her mother. Instead of spending the cash on moving to Dunedin […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":18574,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[174],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-18573","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nz-news"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18573","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=18573"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18573\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18575,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18573\/revisions\/18575"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/18574"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=18573"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=18573"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=18573"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}