Potential 'professor of credit card fraud' sentenced

A man has been sentenced after committing a series of credit card frauds, a court was told.

A man said to have had the potential to become a "professor of fraud" after he committed credit card cons has been sentenced, a court heard.

Andrew Prieditis, 30, from Hamilton, was sentenced to six months home detention after a series of "intricate" frauds involving credit cards, the Waikato Times reports.

Hamilton District Court Judge Robert Wolff – who denied a community detention request for the defendant – ordered Prieditis to pay $16,972 following his cons, the court heard.

The Waikato University mathematics graduate – deemed mentally unwell when he took part in the offences, according to defence counsel Joe Hamblett – pleaded guilty to 81 charges.

These included nine counts of causing loss by deception and 49 counts of dishonestly using a document.

Last month the Northern Territory Police Major Fraud Unit said it was on the lookout for two offenders believed to have links with groups that have been skimming ATM machines, which could affect Australian bank account holders.

By Nate Sawyer