Identity theft 'mule' helped hijack Spark customers' phones, bank apps

An identity theft ring “mule” visited Auckland Spark retail outlets where the telco unwittingly helped take over victims’ phones and access bank accounts.

Kiel MacGregor, 44, fleeced one victim of more than $44,000 before impersonating the man again to convert the stolen money into Bitcoin.

But the then-homeless methamphetamine addict wasn’t the “mastermind” of the operation, Auckland District Court Judge David Sharp said recently in imposing a 12-month intensive supervision sentence for numerous fraud, dangerous driving and drugs charges.

“Other people had a far greater financial stake in what was going on,” the judge said, describing the defendant as someone who “had no autonomous control”.

Court documents state MacGregor would go to Spark stores with an altered ID containing a legitimate customer’s details but the defendant’s photo. He would then ask to transfer the customer’s phone number to a new device he had access to.

“After the victim’s phone number is swapped to the offender’s SIM, they receive authentication messages from the bank, allowing the transfer of large sums of money,” the agreed summary of facts for MacGregor’s case states.

“This all typically occurs before the victim realises that they have lost service on their device.”

The offending began in October 2022 with an attempt to seize control of a phone for the Taupō-based owner of a farming sector business.

That scheme was unsuccessful after the telco noted suspicious activity and the poor state of the licence MacGregor provided.

About two weeks later, MacGregor successfully impersonated another business owner, transferring $33,082 from his personal account and $11,241 from the company account.

He then provided “selfies” of himself with the forged licence to a local cryptocurrency exchange to purchase $31,300 in Bitcoin.

The following year, he stole more identities to obtain $800 worth of Spark gift cards and fraudulently purchase two iPhones and a $2000 camera kit.

MacGregor kept a small percentage of the illegal profits to maintain his drug addiction, authorities have conceded in court documents.

Judge David Sharp. Photo / Jason Dorday

“For each of the charges, the defendant acted at the behest of the mastermind of this operation who is known to police,” authorities said, noting that MacGregor would go to a Milford address after each successful SIM swap.

MacGregor was arrested again in May 2024 after motorists alerted police to his Nissan Tilda driving erratically – including crossing the centre line and nearly hitting an oncoming vehicle – in Te Atatū about 5.40am.

During a traffic stop, police found 14g of methamphetamine, $7700 cash and scales in a shoulder bag. They later found a bottle containing 350ml of illegal drug GBL, also known as “fantasy” or “liquid ecstasy”. MacGregor told police the drugs were not his.

He was charged again six months later after couriering a package of GBL to his brother’s Whangārei home, where he had stayed on bail.

MacGregor had previously been accepted into the drug court, an intensive monitoring programme intended to help those trying to kick drug addictions avoid prison.

However, he was exited from the programme for reasons the sentencing judge said were unknown to him.

Judge Sharp treated the methamphetamine charge, punishable by up to life imprisonment, as the lead offence. The GBL charges carried 14-year maximum penalties and the fraud charges carried sentences of 10 years or less.

In recent years, as his case meandered through the justice system, MacGregor spent nearly a year on electronically monitored bail – and after his brother declined to let him stay in Whangārei, 16 months in custody.

That meant if he was to receive a prison term, he would likely be released soon, if not immediately, on time served, the judge surmised.

Crown prosecutor Conrad Purdon suggested a short term of imprisonment, given the variety of offending over an extended period and a number of bail violations.

If it went through the Parole Board, there would be better oversight, he said.

“I submit something a bit sterner than supervision is required here,” Purdon said.

Police also sought incarceration.

Defence lawyer Jacob Pritchard lobbied for a standard community supervision sentence, less rigorous than the intensive supervision the judge settled on.

Judge Sharp set a starting point of two years for the methamphetamine charge, with the total starting point uplifted to three years and eight months when considering other charges.

He then applied a 40% discount for MacGregor’s guilty pleas and addiction issues, and additional credit for his time on electronically monitored bail and in remand.

The reductions brought the sentence below the two-year threshold at which non-custodial alternatives can be considered.

The sentence’s punitive aspect had been met by the time already in custody, the judge explained.

“It’s simply excessive to require you to serve any more prison time than you’ve already served,” he added.

Craig Kapitan is an Auckland-based journalist covering courts and justice. He joined the Herald in 2021 and has reported on courts since 2002 in three newsrooms in the US and New Zealand.