{"id":162142,"date":"2025-12-01T04:42:08","date_gmt":"2025-12-01T04:42:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/162142\/"},"modified":"2025-12-01T04:42:08","modified_gmt":"2025-12-01T04:42:08","slug":"stonemason-colin-gillies-sent-to-prison-for-defrauding-kaitaia-business-stonecraft","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/162142\/","title":{"rendered":"Stonemason Colin Gillies sent to prison for defrauding Kait\u0101ia business, Stonecraft"},"content":{"rendered":"

As a stonemason, he completed more than 400 jobs for the company, yet five projects stood out when funds were not received into Stonecraft\u2019s bank account.<\/a><\/p>\n

\"ColinColin Gillies was found guilty by a jury at a trial in the Kaikohe District Court earlier this year. Photo \/ NZME<\/p>\n

On three occasions,<\/a> Gillies was found to have created invoices using the Stonecraft logo but used his personal bank account for payment by clients.<\/p>\n

Those invoices totalled $110,000.<\/p>\n

On two other occasions, Gillies received cash payments of $14,000 from Stonecraft clients, which he pocketed. <\/p>\n

At sentencing, Crown lawyer<\/a> Ina Stewart said Gillies took advantage of his position and the offending was serious, over a sustained period. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt is clearly offending that has had a considerable impact on the victims. They trusted this man and had a huge amount of faith in him,\u201d Stewart said.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe proceeded to abuse that trust in such a significant way. They\u2019re a small company, so the loss is felt.\u201d<\/p>\n

Stewart said he had told Corrections that if he were fined, he would take it out of a perceived debt he believes he is owed by Stonecraft.<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cIn those circumstances, there is no basis for any further adjustment for remorse or anything of that nature.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gillies\u2019 lawyer Nick Leader said his client had spent a significant amount of his own money on the projects and it was money he was entitled to.<\/p>\n

\"StonecraftStonecraft Construction Kait\u0101ia manager Pam Mitcalfe said they want to warn others about Colin Gillies. Photo \/ NZME<\/p>\n

Leader claimed many of the Crown\u2019s figures were incorrect and Gillies had the invoices for money he had paid out to sub-contractors to prove.<\/p>\n

But Judge Peter Davey said if that was the case, Gillies should have presented that evidence at trial.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo do that, it would have extended the trial considerably,\u201d Leader responded. <\/p>\n

\u201cHis defence was that he honestly believed that he was entitled to the money.\u201d<\/p>\n

Leader said there was evidence Gillies had paid contractors himself and the case was more aligned with the Civil Court. <\/p>\n

Leader disagreed with the Crown\u2019s claim that the offending was sustained and said that of more than 400 jobs Gillies was involved in, the offending was restricted to just five instances. <\/p>\n

He said Gillies had intended to tidy up the financial paperwork in his \u201cwash-up\u201d and sought a court adjournment so he could provide the records.<\/p>\n

But Judge Davey said it was not in the interests of justice and he was not prepared to grant an adjournment.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf the company owed you that much money, and the fact that no steps whatsoever have been taken to recover those funds, your claim, I\u2019m not prepared to take into account at all,\u201d the judge said.<\/p>\n

Judge Davey said it was a significant breach of trust on a small family-owned business that was now having to rebuild their reputation.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou were leading clients to believe they were paying Stonecraft, but actually, you were diverting the funds so they were paid into your bank account.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not what I would call sophisticated fraud. This is obviously a case where a small company, built on trust and the systems that were in place, you were able to take advantage of.\u201d<\/p>\n

Judge Davey said Gillies\u2019 offending was motivated by entitlement and jailed him for two years and six months.<\/p>\n

Stonecraft Construction\u2019s manager, Pam Mitcalfe, told NZME they wanted an outcome that would ensure Gillies\u2019 name was on the public record to protect others.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is a relief for ourselves and others affected that this case is now behind us,\u201d Mitcalfe said. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe breach of trust, financial and relational damage that fraud brings is significant and shouldn\u2019t be underestimated. The wounds that fraud inflicts, though not seen, are real.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe would like to thank everyone for the level of integrity involved in reaching our goal\/outcome throughout the last couple of years.\u201d<\/p>\n

Shannon Pitman is a Whang\u0101rei-based reporter for Open Justice covering courts in the Te Tai Tokerau region. She is of Ng\u0101puhi\/ Ng\u0101ti P\u016bkenga descent and has worked in digital media for the past five years. She joined NZME in 2023.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"As a stonemason, he completed more than 400 jobs for the company, yet five projects stood out when…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":162143,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[138,8486,45001,2082,106602,18839,111,43,139,69,8442,13743,106603,106601,61],"class_list":{"0":"post-162142","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-zealand","8":"tag-business","9":"tag-colin","10":"tag-defrauding","11":"tag-for","12":"tag-gillies","13":"tag-kaitia","14":"tag-new-zealand","15":"tag-news","16":"tag-newzealand","17":"tag-nz","18":"tag-prison","19":"tag-sent","20":"tag-stonecraft","21":"tag-stonemason","22":"tag-to"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/162142","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=162142"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/162142\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/162143"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=162142"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=162142"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=162142"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}