A man has been sentenced in Griffith Local Court to five years in prison after taking a sick, elderly Deniliquin man's lifesavings over the course of two months in an "organised, planned, premeditated and calculated" fashion.
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South Australian Kryss Pumpa, 47, was charged with 17 counts of dishonestly obtain financial advantage by deception and will spend at least three years and nine months behind bars before being eligible for parole. He was on parole for similar offences when he committed the crimes.
Magistrate Joy Boulos also made a compensation order for Pumpa to pay back $75,771.42 to the victim.
It all started when the Deniliquin victim placed an advertisement in 2016 looking for second-hand scrap metal for his business. He was approached by Pumpa with photos of items he allegedly had for sale in Bendigo, who then requested a down-payment.
Over two months, Pumpa demanded an increase in the down-payment, claimed money for shipping costs, then travel costs several times for himself and a "Michelle" in token gestures to return the money, and then making the man meet them in Melbourne before abandoning him in the lobby of a hotel.
At one stage, "Michelle" asked for bail money as Pumpa was in custody in a Western Australian jail, saying he would not see the items or get his money back if Pumpa was not released.
Since the first interaction in April until the last in June, Pumpa and "Michelle" drained them completely of their life savings and left them with "significant debt and interest".
With serious health issues requiring surgery and ongoing medical treatment, police say the victim was vulnerable and easily manipulated and confused by Pumpa's "aggressive" demands.
A police investigation of like-crimes identified Pumpa as a possible culprit, and in December 2016 he was identified by the victim.
When interviewed by police in Mount Gambier, Pumpa said he had previously known the victim and asked him for a $17,000 loan in order to pay off bikies.
Pumpa claimed the victim was "happy" to give him the money. He denied knowing anyone by the name of "Michelle" or the names of other bank accounts used to deposit money, and also remained "vague" about the items which he had initially claimed to have for sale.
Police noted Pumpa preyed on the vulnerability of the victim, showing "clear indications of dishonest intentions with no genuine attempt to ever return money or provide a product in exchange for the money."
Magistrate Boulos said she had no need to wait for a victim impact statement when deciding on his fate, because she could imagine how an elderly, vulnerable man and his wife were impacted from losing their entire life-savings.
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Pumpa's legal representative Conor Cregan said while they were "serious matters," made the case Pumpa was extracting the money for his daughter, who was under increasing pressure for cash due to her drug habit.
"He knows where he is and accepts whatever the court decides," Mr Cregan said.
Magistrate Boulos said she heard the aggravating features but said the crimes were "disturbing", "organised, planned, premeditated and calculated".
"You manipulated him for two months almost daily and continually asked for money, making all sorts of excuses," she said.
On parole for similar offences during those two months, she said the only mitigating factor was his plea of guilty.
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