It's a one-way ticket to jail

BY MARTIN VAN BEYNEN

Canterbury racing, betting and travel industry figure Dennis Price stole from his new employer to cover up his frauds on another.

What made it worse, the 55-year-old big-spending gambler was told yesterday when he faced new charges in the Christchurch District Court, was that the court had previously given him credit for genuinely making good the frauds.

"Last year I had empathy with his position. Now I don't have that empathy knowing what I know," Judge Jane Farish said.

She sentenced him to a year in jail on four charges of obtaining by deception and one of theft in a special relationship. Price has previously pleaded guilty to the charges. The frauds relating to the charges amounted to a loss of $66,000 for which he was ordered to make reparation.

In September last year Price was sentenced to six months jail on 60 charges of obtaining money by deception in 2004 and 2005. The charges stemmed from his use of $80,000 belonging to clients at McCrory Thomas travel agency for his own purposes, mainly gambling. He served three months.

In sentencing him last year, Judge Farish gave Price substantial credit for repaying the full $80,000. But yesterday the court heard Price had repaid the money by stealing from the travel agency – The Travel Practice – he set up with Wellington businessman Reg Caldow in August 2006, after he left McCrory Thomas. Caldow provided the capital to fund the new agency.

"Now I know you were stealing from one to repay the other," Judge Farish said.

Caldow, who regarded Price as a close and trusted friend, had also given the court a reference for Price's sentencing last year, saying he had the utmost faith in him. Judge Farish said Price had attempted to cover his tracks at McCrory Thomas when he knew police were investigating him. She regarded him as lucky not to be facing a charge of perverting the course of justice.

Some of the offending had occurred while he was on bail on last year's charges and he had also perjured himself.

Price had taken money from Caldow for the business and spent it on legal fees. He had accepted money from clients for sports tickets and travel and kept some of it himself. His gambling had reached $250,000 a year. The amount lost by the Travel Practice and Caldow was likely to be much more than $66,000, she said.

Paul McMenamin, for Price, said his client accepted he had gambled his money away and now had some insight into his problems.

The offending had been committed when his life was out of control, and he was determined to make reparation.

A TALE OF DECEPTION AND HIGH-RISK GAMBLING

To hear Dennis Price talk, he is a victim of circumstances.

He does not have a gambling problem. Yes, he does owe people money, but he never took it on false pretences and always intended to pay it back.

He has made mistakes, he has been in deep, dark places, and he is sorry he has let people down.

But he had it all sorted out and then people went back on their word and the police pressed charges. His lawyers gave him bad advice. His friends turned on him.

Now, he wants to put it all behind him and, if that means pleading guilty to things he did not do, then he will.

"If that is what it takes to get on with life, I'll do it," he says.

But, getting on with his life will have to wait a bit.

Yesterday, he was sentenced to another year in jail on theft and deception charges. Late last year, he started a three-month stretch on 60 other deception charges.

Everyone who knows Price will attest to his generous nature, his ability to mix easily, his way with words, his knowledge of the world, his talent as a salesman, his flair at sport, and his expansive reading.

He has mixed with some of the big names in racing and sport and was a betting pal of inveterate gambler Graham "Steel Balls" Bruton, who once likened his own gambling habit to heroin addiction. But, as one former acquaintance says, "there was always something a bit shady about Dennis".

His betting started when he was still a schoolboy at Christchurch Boys' High. One of the older pupils would take the bets to the Riccarton TAB and place them for him and others. Even then, Price kept a neat little notebook and former associates remember him as very astute.

So, why is Price penniless, deeply in debt and behind bars for the second time in less than a year?

The answer, he told The Press before sentencing, was not gambling, although gambling did take a lot of time and money. It was more his inability to turn down a good horse deal.

Friends were always coming to him with offers of a share in a horse. His dream had always been to breed a champion and, in the end, it cost him everything, he says.

He returned from the United Kingdom in the early '90s and, with his Welsh wife, Karen, set up the Edgeley Grange stud in Cust. Although he had the odd success, the venture failed in the late '90s. Betting, on a scale that surprised even big punters, remained a large part of his life.

Racing was both Price's all-consuming hobby and much of his livelihood. His connections in the racing industry and other sports meant he was the go-to guy for travel arrangements.

When he returned from the UK, he worked for Passport United Holidays and then Go Holidays, of which he owned 30 per cent.

In 2000, he started work with McCrory Thomas United Travel, where owner Roger Thomas regarded him as a "likeable rogue".

"He seemed to be working hard. He was always in at 6am."

After Price left to start up The Travel Practice in August 2006, Thomas, puzzled by money that was not properly receipted, began investigating Price's travel files from 2004 and 2005. He discovered Price had been using his client accounts as his own personal bank.

Between 2004 and 2005, he took money – estimated at $80,000 – from clients' accounts and put it in his Visa account or that of his partner. Some clients' cheques went straight into his personal account. During those two years, he put about $600,000 through his TAB account. Price was clever. He manipulated files and balances, always staying one step ahead. Eventually, he managed to repay the $80,000, but the police had been alerted and charges were laid.

Price's new travel agency was funded by his good client and friend, Wellington businessman and horse owner Reg Caldow. He told Caldow about the charges but said he would be acquitted.

But Price needed money to repay McCrory Thomas and to fund his defence against the charges. He also had a raft of other debts and began borrowing heavily from friends and acquaintances.

One prominent Christchurch businessman, who spoke on the condition he not be named, lent him $100,000.

"Funnily enough, he put such a good story across, I would have helped him even more in the business if he had asked. We were genuinely trying to help him, but it was all a lot of lies," the businessman says.

"He has taken a lot of people down and it's a lot of money."

Caldow, who is a part owner of Arther D Riley and Co, a large business selling water-metering and high-voltage equipment, says his friendship with Price grew from Price arranging travel for him and his companies.

"He was very good at what he did," Caldow says.

The pair travelled together, played golf together and raced horses together.

Price claimed he had to leave McCrory Thomas "because of theft out of his commission account".

Caldow put up an initial six-figure sum to get Price's new travel business up and running. Price was paid a salary of $150,000 a year and owned 12.5 per cent of the business.

On the business's first day, Price asked Caldow for a cheque for about $10,000 to get McCrory Thomas to release a file. Price actually needed the money to balance one of the files he had manipulated.

He asked for a loan of $28,000 to secure the Auckland Blues' travel account, but the money went to his legal fees.

Although the business was immediately busy, it struggled to make a profit.

"We couldn't understand why," Caldow says.

"It didn't matter what we did, we could not make a profit. We did millions in sales."

Caldow and staff from The Travel Practice went to court to support Price when he was sentenced on the McCrory Thomas charges last September, but what they heard began to ring alarm bells. Discrepancies were detected and Price repaid $75,000 he had used to pay lawyers' fees and credit cards.

Caldow chased up people who owed money to the agency, only to find they had already paid – in cash into Price's TAB account or credit-card account or as contra for training horses.

"He told them it was his business. Nobody told me. It was disgusting."

Caldow found another $225,000 taken from the business, which Price agreed to pay back. When he did not, Caldow went to the police.

"I can't understand how anyone as intelligent as him let the gambling get to that level. At any time, he could have come to me and said: `Reg I have made a real fool of myself. I'm in real trouble. What can you do?' We could have dealt with it.

"I've taken an awful hit. There's an awful lot of money involved. It happened because I trusted somebody. I have been around business a long time.

"I know to watch out, but he was so plausible, he got me.

"He tries to tell people I knew what he did with the money. If I had known he had to repay McCrory Thomas, I would never have got involved in the business."

Caldow says he, his family and his staff feel betrayed.

"I have had to continue to bolster the business to look after people who trusted the business. That's why it cost me a lot more. The stress in incredible. So much of it is pride. You can't believe you got caught."

Price has apologised to him in a letter from prison, but it is only words, Caldow says.

Despite everything, Price says he can see the light at the end of the tunnel. He has lost weight and a skin problem has improved. He is reading and writing and friends still visit.

Friends in the travel industry in the UK are prepared to employ him once he finishes his jail sentence.

He will never bet again, he says. "I didn't find it hard to give up.

"People want a label, an easy answer. They say `problem gambler', so I will give it to them."

- © Fairfax NZ News