Dewar jailed over $113k theft

Otago Daily Times

09-06-2025

Former rogue cop John Dewar has been sent back to prison after a jury found him guilty of stealing $113,000 from a finance company of which he was the boss.
It has been 18 years since Dewar was last jailed, for attempting to cover up rape allegations laid against police colleagues Clint Rickards, Bob Schollum and Brad Shipton.
The trio were eventually cleared of raping Louise Nicholas, but Schollum and Shipton were convicted of raping a 20-year-old in Mount Maunganui in 1989.
Dewar — a top officer in Rotorua when he left in 1999 — was jailed for four and a-half years, reduced from an initial six years — for the attempted cover-up.
Yesterday, Dewar was back before Judge Noel Cocurullo in the Hamilton District Court for sentencing on three charges of theft by a person in a special relationship and three charges of obtaining by deception from a finance company he helped set up in 2015.
Dewar was the brains, while his fellow shareholders provided the financial backing of the firm.
The name of the company and its directors are permanently suppressed.
A jury spent eight days hearing evidence last month relating to Dewar's offending between 2015 and 2019, when he stole about $113,000 to help pay off a personal loan, buy weed killer, a spray unit, a toastie machine maker and Hush Puppies shoes.
Part of his defence was that he was never told not to act in the way he did.
But the jury did not buy it and instead found him guilty.
Crown solicitor Jacinda Hamilton said Dewar had "blatantly abused a position of trust and confidence by engaging in calculated and dishonest conduct that caused significant loss to a company with whom he was in a management position".
Dewar had significant commercial experience but had "deliberately ignored his obligations of trust and confidence to the other directors and did so largely for his own financial gain".
Ms Hamilton said it was a "classic illustration of the old adage a leopard doesn't change its spots".
She said the Crown's estimated loss of $150,000 was conservative, as at trial, company directors had claimed it was more than $220,000.
Ms Hamilton said there were no mitigating features of Dewar's offending despite his relinquishing his shareholding in the company, which had since been sold. She called for him to be jailed.
Dewar defended himself at trial but had lawyer Louis Wilkins at his side offering advice when needed.
Yesterday, Mr Wilkins did all the talking for Dewar and tried his best to keep him out of prison.
He sought a lower starting point of 30 months' prison, then argued there were minimal aggravating features present in Dewar's offending, namely sophistication and the amount stolen.
The judge noted a sense of sadness from several of the victims, who felt "somewhat betrayed" by his actions.
"That there had been a solid friendship in many respects, they had been duped by your conduct."
Judge Cocurullo took a starting point of three years' imprisonment and agreed to issue an uplift for his previous conviction.
He then allowed him a 15% discount for offering up his shareholding as reparation, and a further 12% for medical issues before coming to an end jail term of 26 months.
— Belinda Feek, Open Justice journalist