31 March 2009, 23:21
larryshoresPUBLISHED IN THE HUNTING REPORT YESTERDAY
If you travel to hunt, you inevitably
share your adventures with
kindred spirits whose company you
enjoy both in the field and back at
camp. You form bonds and befriend
other hunters and guides with whom
you’ve shared memorable moments.
And with the modern advent of email,
you can easily stay in touch
with them. Many such friendships
last for years and lead to new and
exciting hunting opportunities, as
some of these guides become hunting
operators themselves. As friends,
you agree to support them with repeat
hunts and recommendations to
other friends. Unfortunately, every
so often one of these guides turns
out to be a scoundrel, taking their
friends for thousands of dollars.
Hunting Report subscriber Larry
Shores reports that’s exactly what he
experienced with New Zealand guide
Richard Nunnick, who was just convicted
of three counts of fraud in a
Christchurch District Court.
Shores says he met Nunnickabout six years ago at Glenroy
Lodge, where he experienced a flawless
hunt. “Nunnick and I hit it off,”
Shores says. “I found him to be
pleasant, competent, hardworking
and jovial. We stayed in contact via
e-mail. I liked Nunnick immensely.”
In November of 2006, Nunnick
contacted Shores with news that he
had terminal cancer. Shores spent
several thousand dollars on airline
tickets for Nunnick and his girlfriend
to attend his annual Christmas
party in Orlando, Florida, as he
thought it would be the last time
he’d see his friend. Nunnick never
showed up, claiming he was not
medically cleared to fly. Some
months later, Nunnick told Shores
that he was undergoing experimental
treatments that were effectively
reducing the size of his inoperable
tumor. By mid 2007, he claimed to
be well enough to take Shores hunting.
In late November 2007, Shores
sent Nunnick a $6,000 check for a
deposit on a hunt. Nunnick told him
the New Zealand banks wanted to
hold the check for a total of three
weeks. Shores agreed to wire him another
$6,000 and asked Nunnick to
simply tear up the check. Soon after
Shores wired the money, the original
$6,000 check cleared the bank.
Five months later, after several
attempts to get his money back and
receiving numerous promises and
excuses, Shores was still out
$12,000. He had also learned that
Nunnick had yet to pay the deposit
to the landowner for his upcoming
hunt. Other things turned up wrong
as well, such as the duck shooting
Nunnick included in the deal.
Shores learned the season was
closed during his hunting dates.
And while Nunnick promised a red
stag of a particular size, the landowner
told Shores he did not have
any such stags on the property
where the hunt was to take place.
Before all of this came to light,
Shores had arranged a long-distance
introduction between Nunnick and
booking agent John Barth of Adventure
Unlimited, a longtime friend of
Shores. “Larry is a very thorough
person,” Barth says. “He vouched
for Nunnick and that was all I
needed at the time.” Barth proceeded
to book several clients with
Nunnick. The first hunt was a freerange
stag hunt that was problemfree.
The second hunt, for a highgold
stag and several other animals,
had some issues. While the third
hunt was taking place, the landowner
involved, Neville Cunningham
of Mt. Cook Trophy Hunting,
informed Barth that Nunnick owed
him $50,000. Laurie and Malcolm
Prouting of Mesopotamia Station,
another hunting property involved,
had not been paid either.
Due to the efforts of Cunningham
and Barth, the New Zealand police
opened two fraud investigations
against Nunnick. Turns out not only
did Nunnick scam Shores, Barth, other
hunters and landowners, but he also
had a history of financially scamming
women. A New Zealand newspaper
portrays Nunnick as a Casanova-type
who wooed sympathetic women
online then scammed them out of
room and board, plus money, with a
bogus story about, you guessed it, a
terminal cancer diagnosis.
Last October, Shores won a judgment
against Nunnick for just over
$11,000. He has yet to see a penny
of it. Some months after that, Barth,
Cunningham and the Proutings
came to an agreement about the release
of the trophies after much
time-consuming efforts and great expense
on everyones part. Cunningham
says that despite not having
been fully paid for the trophies
he felt he had little option but to do
so for the sake of his and New
Zealand's reputation as a hunting
destination. Just recently, Nunnick
was convicted of fraud – two counts
of “obtaining by deception” and
one for “using a document dishonestly.”
His sentence? Six months
home detention, 150 hours community
service, and an order to pay a
total of NZ$45,169 in reparations at
a rate of $40 a week to two of the
complainants. Some, including
Shores, would say that justice was
hardly served here. “I am a pretty
savvy guy who has been around the
block more than a few times,”
Shores says. “There has never been
anyone that has fooled me like Richard
did. He is a very slippery character
as it ends up.”
Here at The Hunting Report, I
have seen this scenario more than
once. Not just among hunters, but
among international anglers too
when I worked with Don Causey on
his other publication, The Angling
Report. The camaraderie and bonding
of kindred souls in a hunting or
fishing camp has a way of disabling
some of the defenses we usually
erect when it comes to business
dealings and financial transactions
in our professional lives. We somehow
expect a system of Old World
honor in our hunting and fishing
friendships. Unfortunately, we cannot
count on that, as evidenced by
the likes of Nunnick. So, do we
abandon such relationships, or keep
these friendships at arm’s length?
Refuse to make financial commitments
or help with personal recommendations?
I would say, no. We
don’t need to be that severe. But we
do need to apply the same rigorous
standards of evaluation to guiding
and outfitting “friends” that we do
to any other business contact or
venture. The old adage about money
and friendship not mixing applies
here. Business is business. Always
treat it as such, even when it’s a
friend. – Barbara Crown, Editor.
I'm a bit of a cynic just like Muzza. I hope you get the $$ mate.