Frauds and thefts totalling hundreds of thousands of dollars and two indecency charges have been laid against Paul James Bennett after his deportation from Australia and arrival in Christchurch.
Bail was not sought when Bennett he made a brief Saturday morning court appearance in Christchurch.
Bennett, 53, had been taken into police custody on existing arrest warrants as soon as he arrived at Christchurch Airport on Friday afternoon.
He appeared before Justices of the Peace and was remanded in custody to June 9, when he will likely appear in court by video-link from Christchurch Prison.
Bennett was arrested last year on a yacht in Sydney.
He now faces 48 charges alleging offending all over New Zealand, from Northland to Wanaka, alleging he has dishonestly used documents, caused people to act on forged documents, and stolen various high value items.
He is charged that at Paihia in the Bay of Islands in January or February 2015, he stole a Beau Birdsall 45 Cutter yacht valued at $145,000.
The sex charges allege indecent assaults on a 15-year-old girl in North Shore, Auckland, in 2008, and supplying her with the class B drug MDMA, or Ecstasy.
Bennett is accused of dishonestly obtaining bank transfers, or dishonestly using an invoice, an email confirmation of purchase, tax invoices, and payments for a helicopter part, and final payment for a helicopter.
He is charged with forging a valuation on a Rolex watch, invoices, and altering an Air New Zealand Engineering payslip.
The charges allege offending Paihia, North Shore, Auckland, Taupo, Upper Hutt, Palmerston North, Christchurch, Cust, Naseby and Wanaka in Otago.
In total, Bennett faces 28 charges of dishonestly using documents of obtaining funds, 10 of forgery, five of theft, three of supplying Ecstasy, and two indecent assault. Some charges allege he has offended jointly with his partner, Simone Anne Wright, who is still in Australia.
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