$1.3m wine fraud alleged

A former fine wine consultant at an exclusive Auckland auction house charged with defrauding affluent clients of over $1.3 million has been remanded on bail until the new year.

Simon Gregory Mickleson, 43, appeared in Auckland District Court yesterday.

His alleged victims included leading Auckland surgeons, company owners, senior partners in law firms and the legal counsel to the Todd Property Group, owned by New Zealand's richest family, court documents reveal.

Alleged victims said Mickleson gained legitimacy from his position as Fine Wine consultant at Webb's Auction House, which handles some of the country's most valuable trades.

Police said he had established himself as an expert in wine auctions selling bottles of vintage investment wines that often went for thousands of dollars per bottle, but he also made unauthorised purchases on Webb's clients' credit cards, took money for wine he did not have and altered labels to make wines appear older than they were.

Mickleson was yesterday remanded on bail until February 10 to give police more time to gather written statements.

Leading Auckland surgeon Professor Jim Shaw paid Mickleson $400,000 for a consignment of wines in 2007.

Court documents said Mickleson could not supply the wines and over the next two years compensated Professor Shaw ''by taking money off other good clients and failing to deliver the wine'' and also ''handing him other vendors' wine to clear the debt''.

In January 2008, Webb's was given $125,700 worth of wine to auction.

Police allege Mickleson sold the wine to Professor Shaw and used the proceeds to pay other debtors and then went further: ''On August 8, Webb's Auction House reported a burglary to police.

''Mickleson claimed this wine was stolen in the burglary causing IAG Insurance to reimburse (the sellers) as part of Webb's insurance claim.

"Other charges include offering cases of Chateau Lafite wine to clients in Hong Kong, taking the money,  $66,000 in one case, $22,000 in another,  and never delivering the wine."

Wine maker at Walnut Block, Clyde Sowman, who was also named as an alleged victim, said he ''wondered'' about Mickleson's deals but the association with Webb's gave him legitimacy.

Webb's managing director Neil Campbell said he did not know how much Webb's had reimbursed clients but ''we certainly wrote some cheques''.

Campbell said Mickleson was never directly employed by Webb's and he was operating three or four other wine companies at the time.

He described Mickleson as ''crazy'' and ''quite delusional''.

Ad Feedback Webb's had been ''very front-footed'' in dealing with affected clients and was assisting police, he said.

Mickleson was also charged with using an altered document after he allegedly engaged a graphic designer to change the labels of bottles of wine in a photograph to make a case of 2001 Chateau Lafite appear to be from the valuable 1981 vintage.

He offered these doctored wines to two clients for $98,000 for 24 bottles though both pulled out of the sale suspecting the images were false.

Other charges related to altering invoices to make it appear he had collectable Domaine de la Romanee-Conti and Chateau Petrus wines that he offered to  Australian collectors David Sayer and Janine May.

Sayer and May's initial $25,000 purchase was never delivered.

Police said Mickleson told them he could repay the debt if they funded another deal in which he was going to sell the Petrus 2000 to a Hong Kong buyer.

Sayer and May paid $20,000 and then a further $168,000.

''Mickleson did not deliver any wines for this transaction. Mickleson has diverted the complainant funds to pay his debts,'' court documents said.

Havelock North wine merchant John Macpherson, who paid $36,000 for cases of Te Mata Coleraine wine that never arrived, said Mickleson had excellent wine knowledge and knew the business thoroughly.

He said he met Mickleson at a wine junket to Queenstown for the country's biggest dealers and he was ''an interesting character''.

The court documents quoted Macpherson saying: ''He was invited to be with that crowd.

That's where he got his fingers into us.'' Macpherson said he met Mickleson's family and had dinners with them but the wine deals were ''always very slow and very difficult''.

When the final deal went sour he placed a caveat on his house because ''I just wanted to get the prick'' and he eventually got his money back.

Shaw also said he got ''some'' of his money back.

He said he was not ''completely negative'' about Mickleson because the majority of his dealings with him were ''very straight''.

Shaw said he could not understand what had gone wrong because it was only the later dealings that were questionable.

Wellington barrister Mike Garnham, who was also named as a victim in court documents, confirmed he was assisting police.

He declined to comment further but said Webb's had been very helpful.

Legal counsel to the Todd Property Group, Andrew Webster, was named in court documents as a friend who had lent Mickleson money with other people's wine used as security.

The loan was never repaid.

Webster declined to comment.