The receipts were altered electronically to show items that were accepted on the system and then sent to an external accountant for entry into trust accounts. <\/p>\n
Over the course of 11 months, 20 transactions totalling $4690 were made to various supermarkets and shops in Christchurch using trust credit cards. <\/p>\n
Nelly Sione has been sentenced to home detention.<\/p>\n
Sione also hired a minibus for personal use using the trust name and account number, but when questioned about it provided an altered invoice showing false dates.<\/p>\n
She had driven 595km in it and sent a $903 invoice to the accountant. <\/p>\n
Sione told the trust general manager it had been hired for vaccinations in Ashburton when, in fact, she had used it for personal use over the Christmas break in 2022, when the trust office was closed and all employees were on leave.<\/p>\n
Sione also forged an invoice for $2560 and billed it to another employee. <\/p>\n
The descriptions were for vinyl, cutting and peeling vinyl and bucket hats from a company that didn\u2019t exist. <\/p>\n
She coded it and sent it to an external accountant for payment who then paid the invoice into one of her associated accounts. <\/p>\n
Sione was confronted in December 2023, three years after she began working for the trust.<\/p>\n
She told senior managers and the trust\u2019s lawyer that she accepted the allegations and had \u201cno excuse\u201d for her actions. <\/p>\n
\u201cI want the opportunity to pay it back and I apologise for what I did.\u201d<\/p>\n
At her recent sentencing, the Christchurch District Court heard that her actions caused great difficulties for the trust. <\/p>\n
The police prosecutor said Sione cleverly covered her offending while shelving it on to another person. <\/p>\n
\u201cShe would have been well aware that the money that was taken was destined to be used for disadvantaged people.<\/p>\n
\u201cTo put the blame on an innocent person takes it into a different realm, I have never seen anything like this. A person\u2019s entire career could have been destroyed.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2018You are a lifelong fraudster\u2019 <\/p>\n
Judge Tony Couch said Sione had caused significant stress, specifically to one of her colleagues, who she tried to blame for her actions.<\/p>\n
The court did not hear details on who the colleague was or how Sione tried to blame them. <\/p>\n
\u201cThe trust was put to a great deal of trouble to find out that you were the sole person responsible for the loss.\u201d<\/p>\n
Judge Couch told Sione she had deprived needy people of help.<\/p>\n
He said Sione had 97 convictions, some of which were for theft as a servant and forging documents. <\/p>\n
\u201cYou are a lifelong fraudster.\u201d<\/p>\n
The only mitigating factor was the fact Sione\u2019s last offence was in 2014, the judge said.<\/p>\n
\u201cBy a very small margin, I am prepared to sentence you to home detention.\u201d<\/p>\n
The trust estimated it had cost them more than $40,000 to uncover Sione\u2019s deception.<\/p>\n
Judge Tony Couch ordered Sione to pay back $8153 in misappropriated funds and added $10,000 in reparation before sentencing her to 12 months\u2019 home detention.<\/p>\n
Trust tightens the reins<\/p>\n
Tangata Atumotu Trust board chairwoman Tanya McCall told NZME the trust acknowledged the sentencing.<\/p>\n
\u201cMs Sione was a trusted colleague and team leader who had passed standard reference checks and onboarding procedures, who went to deliberate lengths to conceal her deception.<\/p>\n
Tangata Atumotu Trust board chairwoman Tanya McCall.<\/p>\n
\u201cAfter our internal audit processes revealed discrepancies, Tangata Atumotu Trust acted swiftly by reporting the matter to police and initiating legal proceedings. <\/p>\n
\u201cOur ongoing investigations revealed further complexities and incurred over $30,000 in legal and auditing costs, which we would have preferred to invest in the wellbeing of our communities.\u201d<\/p>\n
McCall did not answer specific questions about what Sione had done in terms of trying to point the finger at her colleague, whether the trust was aware of her previous dishonesty convictions at any point, if concerns were raised and if there was a vetting system in place. <\/p>\n
In response to the offending, the trust had strengthened processes, including credit card oversight and payment sign-off procedures, to ensure additional transparency and accountability. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe are proud of our 25-year legacy of service and are grateful for the continued support of our community and funders as we move forward.\u201d<\/p>\n
Al Williams is an Open Justice reporter for the New Zealand Herald, based in Christchurch. He has worked in daily and community titles in New Zealand and overseas for the last 16 years. Most recently he was editor of the Hauraki-Coromandel Post, based in Whangamat\u0101. He was previously deputy editor of the Cook Islands News.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"She was issued a credit card with an authorised spend of up to $1000 per purchase, to assist…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":148873,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[99531,50545,12765,2082,71,1364,4937,111,43,139,69,5161,99530,23934,14168,9438],"class_list":{"0":"post-148872","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-zealand","8":"tag-atumotu","9":"tag-christchurchs","10":"tag-employer","11":"tag-for","12":"tag-from","13":"tag-her","14":"tag-nelly","15":"tag-new-zealand","16":"tag-news","17":"tag-newzealand","18":"tag-nz","19":"tag-sentenced","20":"tag-sione","21":"tag-tangata","22":"tag-theft","23":"tag-trust"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/148872","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=148872"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/148872\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/148873"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=148872"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=148872"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=148872"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}