Kiwis, by and large, are a trusting bunch. And for the vast majority of us, our word is our bond.
Which is what makes the case involving the bloke in the photo above – Paul James Bennett – such a pisser. Bottom line? The lifelong fraudster, responsible for ripping off ordinary, everyday people like you and I, couldn’t lie straight in bed. And though he has now been caught, punished, and hopefully won’t get another chance to re-offend when – eventually – he is released from prison, the stain he has left on so many peoples’ lives will take years to fade.
Ordinarily, of course, I’d skim read a story like his out of little more than morbid curiosity before moving on to something else in the NZ Herald newspaper or website that day.
In my case however, it got personal, and I’d like to tell you a wee story about my own brush with the bugger – Paul James Bennett, Dennis Kite, James Lochead or whatever alias he was using at the time.
But first, a little update. Court records show that on July 23 this year Bennett (by all accounts his real name) was sentenced at the Christchurch District Court to a total of 38 months in jail after pleading guilty to seven charges of either theft or fraud involving four victims between 2003 and 2014.
Now 57-years-of-age Bennett’s a Kiwi who has also spent a number of years living – and by all accounts continuing to perpetrate his various frauds – across the Tasman.
However, when I look at some of the scams Bennett, again supposedly a trained helicopter pilot, perpetrated on a business partner here between 2012 and 2014, I think I – and the family I am going to tell you about – got off incredibly lightly.
I raise the issue of knowing who you are dealing with, and being very careful – particularly with who you bring ‘into the fold’ to work with your kids and their futures – because while I have yet to meet anyone who can top Bennett’s ability to bullshit their way into and cause mayhem in other people’s lives, I’m sure he isn’t the first to do so, and am equally certain he won’t be the last!
But enough of the scene-setting, on with the story.
The year would have been 2007 – or perhaps 2008 – and I was editing what at the time was generally considered New Zealand’s biggest and best motorcycle magazine, Kiwi Rider.
As well as news, tests and race reports, plus features, what I’ll call ‘first-person’ columns (either written by a rider him or herself, or ghost-written by someone like my good self) were considered a popular part of the editorial mix.
Looking back now I’m not – to be perfectly honest – sure why. But hey, they were simpler times, and this was years – decades even – before the advent of Vlogging and YouTube.
Anyway, through the good graces of a mate whose son’s impressive early kart and single-seater career I had worked closely with on, the question was asked…..’would you guys be interested in running a column by young (let’s call him) ‘Bob!’
At the time the mag was full of Ben Townley (2004 World MX2 champion and 3rd the year after in MX1 behind famed Belgian rider Stefan Everts and the other Kiwi world-beater at the time, Josh Coppins) so there was definitely room for, as well as a general interest in, who might be the next BT…..
Not just that either, because as well as being able to ‘ride like the wind,’ Bob was also a very personable young bloke who – as it turned out – had been a voracious reader of the mag since he was a young tacker and therefore knew exactly what ‘the kids’ wanted from a column.
In short, he was what was known in publishing circles at the time as ‘good talent’ and I remember it being an absolute pleasure to receive his clean, spell-checked columns either before or on time each month.
So, you can imagine how I felt when some bloke I personally had never heard of phoned me out of the blue one day to say that from this point on I would be dealing with him in regards to ‘Bob’s’ column and that because of the interest in his career he (the bloke not Bob) would be writing ‘both’ columns…
“Both columns? “I seem to remember repeating… my throat suddenly dry.”
“Oh yes,” Paul James Bennett (for it was he!) said blithely. “Paul Lance (the publisher of rival magazines Bike Rider Magazine (BRM) and Dirt Rider Downunder (DRD) says he’d like a column as well so I’m going to do one for him too.”
I – in a word – was dumbstruck. With no money involved deals like the ones we negotiated for Kiwi Rider were based more on goodwill than anything else. And a key tenet of that goodwill was exclusivity – in the NZ market anyway.
As far as I was concerned ‘Bob’ was ‘our’ rider and while there would have been nothing wrong with Paul James Bennett playing us off against Paul in a ‘bidding war’ there was a lot wrong with effectively putting the same information in two competing magazines each and every month.
Who the hell was ‘this idiot?’ I fumed as I flicked through the Rolodex (remember them?) beside my telephone looking for Bob’s Mum’s telephone number.
‘Karen’ (and no that was not her real name), was my first port of call if I had any issue with one of Bob’s columns, mainly because Bob was working as a chippy’s apprentice at the time and couldn’t always be guaranteed to pick up the phone during the day,
“Hiya Karen, just checking,” I managed to get out without too much venom. “I’ve just had a phone call from some @#$%$# %^%$& who reckons he’s Bob’ manager and says he’s…..”only to be interrupted by an ever-so-slightly agitated voice, saying something along the lines of “that’s right, that would have been Paul….He’s a……whose done all sorts of…..and he says he can get ‘Bob’ a ride in Aussie….and….etc etc.”
“Fine,” I said, “but you do realise that this is the end of any relationship you (meaning her son Bob) has with us, don’t you?
Karen – as new to the obviously bewildering ways of the media as her new ‘bestie’ Paul James Bennett was – sort of tried to argue her corner, however I was in no mood to compromise (I was, in a word, seething!) and said that I was going to tell her ‘mate’ Bennett the same thing.
Which I did……and do you know what, that was – literally – the last time I ever spoke to the bugger.
“Just ringing back to say thank you for the opportunity you offered us re Bob’s column…. But that it’s one we obviously – for the reasons I outlined when we spoke earlier today – can’t take up,” I said.
“I wish Bob well in his career and look forward to seeing how he goes in Aussie,” I finished….and to the strains of Paul James Bennett going, ‘but, but, but I thought we had a deal…..’ banged the phone down hard on its cradle, and let out a sigh of frustration, anger, pissed-off-ness and resignation.
Not that I should have worried for too long about the situation with young Bob and his new ‘manager’ though.
While the precise details are lost in the mists of time I remember Karen and I talking through ‘what happened next’ a year or so later.
At the time, she explained, her and her husband were in the process of separating and she admitted to finding herself a little ‘at sea’ in the macho and very male-dominated world of motocross.
At the same time she said that she was determined to do as good for her son ‘Bob’ as ‘any Dad would’ and – long, story short – old mate Paul James Bennett’s offer ‘to help’ came along at just the right time!
Fortunately my phone call, apparently, had prompted her to ‘do a little digging’ and when – as she indicated – some things didn’t quite add up, well let’s just say, Paul James Bennett’s tenure as Bob’s manager didn’t last that long.
My message here, of course, is simple. If someone turns up – out of the blue – and offers you something, anything, that seems too good to be true, chances are it is (too good to be true!).
Also, as someone who has – now – been around motorsport on two and four wheels for – let’s just call it – a ‘long’ time it still impresses me how quickly most ‘ordinary, average, everyday Kiwis’ grasp the basics of career ‘management’ and finding as well as looking after sponsors.
At the end of the day most of it boils down to common sense, trust and your word being your bond.
It’s just a pity that the odd – literally – bloke like Paul James Bennett didn’t get the memo!
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