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A serial fraudster, who dressed like James Bond, drove Ferraris and defrauded $7.6m from more than a dozen victims including close friends and girlfriends, has been sentenced to 16 years in prison by a judge.
Handing down his sentence in Sydney’s district court on Thursday, acting judge Colin Charteris found McLaren was “motivated by greed” and sentenced him to a 16-year prison sentence including a non-parole period of 12 years.
In handing down his sentence, Charteris said he had “regrettably come to the view that Mr McLaren is not remorseful [and is] sorry for no one other than himself”.
“Mr McLaren is sorry for his own predicament and not truly sorry for the ruinous results of his outrageous conduct,” he said.
The 49-year-old was arrested in 2017 after multiple faux investment schemes – including in currency, gold and shares in a “profitable” Papua New Guinea gold mine – came unstuck.
McLaren has no formal financial qualifications and on one occasion also pretended to be a practising barrister. He fleeced 15 victims over six years, the majority being through a Ponzi or pyramid scheme, including the Australian fashion designer Lisa Ho.
McLaren, who received a discount on his sentence for his early guilty plea, had promised victims high returns on investments.
In most cases he did not invest their funds, instead transferring money between his accounts to be “spent as he decided”, including to help fund a lavish lifestyle that included frequent trips to the US and UK and an Aston Martin.
At McLaren’s sentencing hearing, his brother-in-law, Christopher Rourke, testified: “He would watch a James Bond movie and then dress like James Bond. Same suit, same hair.”
McLaren’s victims are still owed a total of $5.4m, or $900,000 a year over the six years of his offending.
On Thursday, Charteris questioned where the money was.
“Even James Bond would have trouble spending $900,000 a year,” he said. “It’s an extraordinary sum of money [and] no real explanation has been given for where it is.
“I cannot conclude that some of the money is not still in this country or overseas, all I can say is the endeavours of police have not been able to locate it but I simply cannot say he spent it all.”
McLaren, who wore a grey suit, blue shirt and navy tie, rarely looked up during the lengthy sentencing, instead taking copious notes throughout the judge’s remarks.
He did not react when Charteris handed down his sentence but the public gallery, full of McLaren’s victims, burst into applause.
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