Sentencing — money laundering — fraud — Spark phone scam — fake Spark technician — Operation Deadwood — no guiding tariff — Sentencing Act 2002 — Queen v Khan [2018] NZHC 3065 — Q v Varjan CA97/03, 26 June 2003 — Cole v Police [2001] 2 NZLR 139 — R v Dawick HC Hamilton CRI-2005-419-122, 2 May 2006. The defendant appeared for sentence on one charge of engaging in a money laundering transaction. He had played a relatively small role in a sophisticated scam involving an associate posing as a Spark technician to obtain the victim's bank account details. The defendant had then withdrawn $5000 from the victim's bank account in four separate transactions. The victim was elderly man who had been devastated by the offending. The starting sentence was eight months' imprisonment. This was reduced by 25 per cent for the defendant's early guilty plea, for a final sentence of six months. He would be facing deportation at the end of his sentence as he had been unlawfully in New Zealand since 2017. Judgment Date: 18 December 2019.