Simon Turnbull left the country in 2014, failing to show up for his first court appearance to answer fraud charges.

Mortgage fraudster Simon Lawrence Wood Turnbull has been sentenced to jail for his part in a $33 million mortgage fraud.

Earlier this year, the Auckland developer returned to New Zealand to plead guilty to 16 charges of obtaining by deception or causing loss by deception.

On Friday, Turnbull was sentenced in the Auckland District Court to three years and two months in jail.

MICHAEL BRADLEY/FAIRFAX NZ Serious Fraud Office director Julie Read says the sentence sends a message to keep the housing market honest.

He was involved in a mortgage fraud where false loan applications were submitted to a fund management company to buy properties in and around Auckland.

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The complainant, a second-tier lender chaired by former prime minister Jim Bolger, was tricked into handing nearly $33m in loans for properties in and around Auckland between 2003 and 2007.

Turnbull had left the country in early 2008 but was charged by the Serious Fraud Office in 2014.

He failed to appear at his first court date nearly two years ago but returned to New Zealand in June after living overseas.

He was arrested at Auckland International Airport and subsequently bailed.

SFO director Julie Read said the prosecution helped ensure and honest market where people could safely invest at a fair rate.

In February, 2014, another defendant, Malcom Myer, was sentenced to six years' imprisonment for his role in the fraud.