Gambler pays a heavy price

JOELLE DALLY | 7th May 2010

High-profile former travel agent, horse breeder and gambler Dennis Price may be back behind bars soon just months after being released from prison.

The 55-year-old will be sentenced next month after pleading guilty to five new charges - four of obtaining by deception and one of theft from a person in a special relationship.

The charges relate to stealing money from the company he co-owned, The Travel Practice, between 2006 and 2009.

Police are seeking reparation of nearly $60,500.

Police, and his Wellington-based business partner Reg Caldow, say the money was spent on personal travel, gambling, and to repay debts from his original offending at McCrory Thomas Travel.

Price told The Star yesterday he was remorseful for his actions, and had decided that his punting days were over.

He said he had seen a gambling counsellor while in jail.

"I'll never bet again. I don't watch the races anymore," he said.

"I'm at a point in my life where you can't get lower or darker. For a 55-year-old, white, non-tattooed guy to go to jail was a hell of a shock."

Price's fall from grace came last year, when he was sentenced to six months jail for using travel clients' money for his own purposes while he was employed at Riccarton travel agency McCrory Thomas Travel.

Up to $600,000 was allegedly used for gambling on the TAB.

When Price was sentenced last year, he was given credit for paying most of the money back and having the means to pay reparation of $40,039.

The sentencing sparked the Travel Agents Association of New Zealand to pass a resolution that people with dishonesty convictions could not work in the New Zealand travel industry.

The new charges came about after Price was jailed last year.

Mr Caldow checked his own accounts and found Price had been ripping him off since day one.

Mr Caldow, 66, told The Star the saga was " so unsavoury."

He had considered Price a friend, and believed Price when he told him the charges relating to McCrory Thomas Travel were unsubstantiated.

"He told me money had been stolen out of his accounts (at McCrory) and he needed to get out and make a fresh start," Mr Caldow said.

"Once we started looking for problems, we found so many."

When Price founded the company with Mr Caldow's financial backing in September 2006, his employment at McCrory Thomas Travel had just ended after they began investigating irregularities around his travel bookings.

Mr Caldow was to be the silent partner, while Price fronted the business.

His offending started on the day he began - Price charging $28,082 to Mr Caldow's personal credit card to pay for "accommodation for the Auckland Blues rugby team at the Leriba Lodge in South Africa."

The money was instead used to cover a debt with an Australian company for bookings Price made while working for McCrory Thomas Travel.

On another occasion Price used a client's credit card to cover the fact money was missing from The Travel Practice accounts.

Meanwhile Mr Caldow, who was hoping to have The Travel Practice fund his retirement, could not understand why he was not seeing any returns.

"While people got good travel and itineraries, the one who didn't make any money was me," Mr Caldow said.

When spoken to by police, Price admitted he had misappropriated funds from The Travel Practice. He stated he was desperate to get the files at McCroy Thomas Travel up to date, was in financial difficulty and needed the money, the police summary of facts said.

Mr Caldow said: "never in my wildest dreams" did I think Price thought Price would steal from him.

"I had faith in him. I thought he was operating efficiently and honestly ..."I've lost a huge amount of money ... the stress has been unbelievable."

Price said he had accepted stealing from The Travel Practice was "absolutely stupid."

"I think whey you're struggling you do things you obviously regret afterwards," he said.

"If I have to go back to jail, I have to go back to jail," he said.

"The only focus I have is to pay whatever debts I have ... once my sentenced is done, then I will go overseas."

He said working in the travel industry was the only thing he knew.

Price had written two "very nice" letters to Mr Caldow from prison, but Mr Caldow had not responded.

Meanwhile, the owner of McCrory Thomas Travel, Roger Thomas, says he is still waiting to see any of the $40,000 reparation Price was to pay him.

He said Price, who yesterday maintained he had left no debt with McCrory Thomas Travel, had offered to pay the reparation at $20 a week.

"By the time he finishes paying he will be 97," Mr Thomas said.

Price part-owned successful racehorse Alien Waits, which was sold last year. Mr Thomas said he saw none of the proceeds of the sale either.

Mr Thomas said in the two years they looked at, they believed Price had spent $320,000 on the TAB in 2005; and $250,000 on the TAB in 2006.

"He worked for me for six years and I'll never know what he took," he said.

"He was always Mr Flash with the cash," he said.

"He gambled on everything ... But he was always borrowing money to repay what he'd stolen. And it caught up with him."

"How he ever slept I'm buggered if I know."

Mr Thomas could only recall one gambling win for Price, in September 2005, where he won $10,000.

Price will be sentenced on the new charges on June 21 - a week after his 56th birthday.

The Travel Practice is still operating as a business, but under a different name.