Chrischurch conman causes havoc overseas

One of Christchurch's most notorious exports is causing havoc in Australia after similar exploits in the United States and Canada.

John Gray, 50, who often uses the title Captain, has turned up in Melbourne, Brisbane and Perth still doing million-dollar deals that he has no prospect of finalising.

Since February he has contracted to buy about $NZ120 million of Australian property and businesses, including trucking and engineering businesses in Perth, properties in Melbourne and a $2.1m farm west of Noosa in Queensland.

His Australian stint comes after signing up to $NZ200m of property and business deals in Canada in 2005 and about $33m of property deals in New Zealand earlier that year.

Posing as a lawyer and airline pilot, who has inherited millions from an aunt in Melbourne, Gray, who appears to suffer from a Walter Mitty-type syndrome, has managed to dupe a young financier in Brisbane and a business broker in Perth.

The broken deals have caused anguish, wasted other people's time and, in one case, a heart attack has been blamed on them.

Perth real estate agent Albert Kramer told The Press the stress of dealing with Gray and all the disappointed, angry "husbands, wives, solicitors and banks constantly ringing", after failures by Gray to pay deposits or settle contracts, had led to a heart attack in May.

"In the 35 years I have been in real estate I've never had so much stress," Kramer said.

Gray, who lives in St Kilda in Melbourne, first approached Kramer in July last year to buy a music business, and he provided a statement of his financial affairs that said he had $101m cash and $326m of other assets, including shares, hotels, and mining and oil interests.

"I just don't know how to take the guy. I really think he is sick after knowing him for 16 months," Kramer said.

"It was lucky for me in a way that I did tell people `if it goes through it's fantastic; if it doesn't I haven't got an answer for it'. Whatever people he spoke to like concreting people, engineering people he's had them bluffed because they seemed to think he knew what he was talking about.

"He told me he has got a pilot's licence, that he's got an icebreaker, he's got his own plane. We were contemplating reporting him."

Gray is facing charges in Melbourne after he allegedly rented two houses without paying, contracted to buy a $NZ1.8m property and paid the deposit with a cheque that bounced, and tried to buy several cars with bad cheques.

He was charged in November last year with obtaining financial advantage by deception and attempting to buy property by deception. A trial date has not yet been set.

As always, the puzzle is why Gray does it. His last two forays on two continents have earned him no more than a few thousand dollars, free accommodation, lunches and attention.

The Press believes Gray still owes South Island people well over $1m for money they invested in his various schemes, some of which were promoted by his late father, Ian.

The Brisbane financier and insurance broker, who asked not to be named, said he met Gray in February when Gray was referred to him for life insurance.

Over the next six months the financier went to view the Noosa property on Gray's behalf and flew with him to Perth to look at businesses. Gray also offered him a job in Vancouver working for his oil and natural gas company, Gray GEO Drilling, but a contract did not eventuate.

"We were looking for a new adventure. I think a spanner has been put in the works," the financier said.

He was still shocked by the news he had been dealing with a conman.

"It's weird. It's like, how does he survive? He sounded very knowledgeable."

Greg Stevenson, an artist in Eumundi, west of Noosa, said he had sold his 16ha farmlet to the Gray Family Trust for $2.1m, but the deal had dragged out over three months and was never settled.

"I'm trying to figure out how he gets satisfaction out of it or how he gets money out of it trying to buy property," said Stevenson, who never spoke to Gray.

"We've been strung along thinking we had a cash deal. I'd almost moved out of the house because I thought we had to be out next Monday, and I got a rental house and got a place for the furniture.

"The money was always coming the next day."

Shane Jones, a lawyer acting for Gray, said he was constrained by what he could say but confirmed promises made by Gray about money were never kept.

"The payment would be next day and then the next day. It just went on and on and every time you spoke to him there was a different way it was coming to you," Jones said.

"The interesting thing about him is that he talks to you and writes to you in a shorthand fashion and you've got no idea what he's talking about. His emails are classic. If you don't talk the same lingo you don't know what he is talking about."

Gray had told him he was also a commercial lawyer.

Gray, who says he is working as a crane driver in Melbourne, said yesterday he was working for Canadian investment company Gray GEO Drilling in buying the various assets in Australia.

The purchases had been stalled by the international credit crunch, and "secondly where you had facility funding to pay for it and now if we received our funding we are discharging".

"If you call back in 10 days, most of the stuff will be finished," he said.

The asset summary he had provided was correct, he said, as was the claim one of his companies owned an icebreaker based in northern Canada and a Gulfstream jet. He was rated to fly the jet, he said.

He denied living in a fantasy world or being dishonest in his business dealings.

He said he had been asked to straighten out an Australasian transport company, which he had done. He would not name the company, but The Press understands he has been working as a truck driver for Coles.

 

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