Man poses as attractive blonde woman, convinces police officer to hand over patrol car

7:00 am on 4 December 2022
By Qiuyi Tan, Open Justice reporter of NZ Herald

A young man's fake Tinder persona of an attractive blonde woman was so convincing he managed to persuade an active police officer to hand over his patrol car and body armour vest.

Tyler Rawiri Tetera, then 23 and long fascinated with police, used the car and vest in an elaborate sex-money scam, swindling tens of thousands of dollars in total from three victims. They bought him iPhones, a car, and in at least one case, had sex with him.

Court documents tell the story of an easily bored young man skilled at using superficial charm and deceit to create chaos.

Suppression orders on Tetera's identity and file were lifted last week, shedding light on his spree of lies and deception from January 2020 until his arrest in March the following year.

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