Man who applied for almost 8000 jobs had been in prison in US

Friday, 21 November 2025

In October, Stuff published three stories about Robert Purchase.

You can read them here, here and here.

Purchase told us he had applied for almost 8000 jobs over two years without landing one.

He believed there was one thing holding him back: in 1997, aged 20, he was sent to prison for a string of crimes ranging from shoplifting to unlawfully carrying a weapon and assault.

Purchase provided Stuff with a copy of his New Zealand criminal record dated till September 2024. It supported his claim that he had not been convicted of a crime in New Zealand since he was jailed in 1997.

We would like to clarify that Purchase was convicted of crimes overseas after being released from jail in New Zealand. In 2003, he received 25-year jail sentences in Florida for kidnap, and for carjacking with a deadly weapon. He was released in 2023 and returned to New Zealand.

Our reporting said that Purchase worked in a variety of roles while overseas. Stuff would like to clarify that some work referred to was between his time in prison in New Zealand and his imprisonment in the US. Other work referenced was carried out during his time in prison.

He said his comments in those stories about not reoffending after being released from prison related specifically to his time in New Zealand.

Finally, Stuff would like to clarify that other parties who provided comments for those stories - about Purchase specifically, or in relation to the wider issue of former prisoners being given another chance - did so in the belief that Purchase had not reoffended anywhere.