Pensioner under cosmic healer's spell helped by Hare Krishnas

Monday, 11 February 2019

Pensioner Desmond Mellor fell under Ingrid Jander's spell, followed her to Dunedin and lost $253,000.

He then fell in with a Hare Krishna group who found him a lawyer and helped him get a 'chunk' of his money back.

The former Auckland company director now lives and works on the Hare Krishna farm in Motueka in happy retirement, a far cry from his life with Ingrid Jander, 66, a German-born cosmic healer.

Jander, whom Mellor knew as Hillary Johnston, has made a career of attaching herself to people who can help her with money and lodgings.

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In 2010 she allegedly brainwashed Russian-born Svetlana Malanina into buying her Auckland property for $200,000 more than it was worth for a wellness centre. The High Court has ordered Jander to pay Malanina $193,000, plus a share of the $60,000 legal costs.

Currently Jander is close with a Cromwell woman who rejected her family after falling under the influence of the healer. The woman has received a $1.2 million matrimonial settlement and has changed her will to benefit Jander.

Mellor sold the family home in Sunnynook, Auckland, in 2014 after separating from his wife and while feeling vulnerable.

Ingrid Jander moved in with a Cromwell woman in 2017. Within months the family had disintegrated.

Friends said he then fell under the influence of Jander who convinced him he was very ill and needed to be cared for. She took power of attorney over his assets.

Jander took him to Dunedin where she bought a home in Bouverie St, North East Valley, allegedly with Mellor's money.

Liz Hall, who did odd jobs for Jander on the Bouverie St house, said Jander's treatment of Mellor was appalling.

'He was pulled out of bed at sunrise, made to sleep on a camp stretcher and made to work. He wasn't allowed to talk to any of the tradespeople and he didn't get much to eat because she was so mean with money.'

Ingrid Jander allegedly bought this Dunedin house with Desmond Mellor's money.

Hall said Jander 'fobbed off' Mellor to the Hare Krishna commune in Dunedin and he then went to live on the farm in Motueka.

Hearing Mellor's story, commune staff hired a Dunedin lawyer who put a caveat on the Bouverie St house and began court action in the Nelson High Court in 2016 around the time Jander tried to sell the property.

The action alleged Jander was in a position of trust towards Mellor and misused her position, including through the use of power of attorney, to misappropriate $253,341.

Sources said Mellor got a 'chunk' of his money back in an out-of-court settlement in which Jander demanded an hourly rate for looking after Mellor.