{"id":380619,"date":"2026-04-15T12:05:09","date_gmt":"2026-04-15T12:05:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/380619\/"},"modified":"2026-04-15T12:05:09","modified_gmt":"2026-04-15T12:05:09","slug":"fraudster-karina-knedler-sentenced-in-the-tauranga-district-court","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/380619\/","title":{"rendered":"Fraudster Karina Knedler sentenced in the Tauranga District Court"},"content":{"rendered":"

At her recent sentencing in the Tauranga District Court<\/a>, the Crown asked Judge David Cameron to take Knedler\u2019s self-reported addiction and background issues, traversed in a pre-sentence report, with a \u201csignificant degree of caution\u201d.<\/p>\n

Knedler had told a pre-sentence report writer that a friend had taken her own life, following a traumatic court case that Knedler was a complainant in.<\/p>\n

However, the Crown\u2019s inquiries found the case Knedler was referring to, and was a complainant in, had involved a less serious charge than the one claimed, and there had been no co-complainant.<\/p>\n

The person she claimed had committed suicide was, in fact, \u201calive and well\u201d.<\/p>\n

Crown prosecutor Laura Clay said there were examples of Knedler misleading the court on other occasions, too.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe\u2019s told Judge Geoghegan she needed to leave the court for a family court matter that afternoon, which was not scheduled,\u201d Clay said.<\/p>\n

\"KarinaKarina Charmaine Knedler at her sentencing in the Tauranga District Court.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe\u2019s also told Judge Geoghegan she needed to immediately leave the court to attend her chemotherapy appointments.\u201d<\/p>\n

However, Clay said the alcohol and drug report said she had good health. <\/p>\n

\u201cThere is no suggestion that she is suffering from a cancer diagnosis,\u201d Clay said.<\/p>\n

She said any issues raised in the alcohol and drug pre-sentence report should be given limited weight, in terms of a causal nexus.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt does not suggest that the defendant is incapable of engagement or planning… The scale and persistence and sophistication of the offending demonstrates an ability for the defendant to organise herself, sustain focus and execute quite complex conduct over quite a significant period of time.\u201d<\/p>\n

Knedler\u2019s lawyer Bill Nabney pointed out there were things contained in the pre-sentence report which the Crown hadn\u2019t taken issue with, despite making inquiries about them, which were not false claims.<\/p>\n

Dishonesty towards employers<\/p>\n

While employed in a retail store, Knedler processed false refunds, for items including a jewellery box, a silk jacket, and two other garments, when she was alone in the shop.<\/p>\n

But the items had not been returned; Knedler took relevant receipts out of the till, processed the refunds, and pocketed the cash.<\/p>\n

She took nearly $600 in false refunds.<\/p>\n

While working at K&M Electrical in Tauranga, she applied for loans in the names of the business owners, accessing copies of their marriage certificate and drivers licences and using them to apply for loans.<\/p>\n

She used the finance to purchase a 2016 Jeep Wrangler and 2017 Dodge Challenger.<\/p>\n

In her communications about obtaining finance and purchasing the vehicles, she purported to be the director of the company, using the company email address and signing off in the director\u2019s name.<\/p>\n

She also created Afterpay and Laybuy accounts using the director\u2019s name and business email address, and used the Laybuy account to purchase items at Briscoes.<\/p>\n

Working For Families tax fraud and undeclared income<\/p>\n

For each set of charges Knedler faced, from different agencies, she had a different name associated with her offending.<\/p>\n

Her IRD charges were laid under the name \u201cKarina Longville\u201d and involved her accessing a computer system to get Working for Families Tax Credits (FAM), tax evasion, dishonestly using documents and using forged documents. <\/p>\n

From December 2020, she had been getting Working for Families tax credits for sharing the daily care of her four children, but in May 2021, the self-employed \u201chealth and fitness trainer\u201d started receiving self-employed income which she didn\u2019t declare for a three-year period.<\/p>\n

Later, her children were no longer living with her, but she didn\u2019t tell the IRD, and continued to get the tax credits.<\/p>\n

Along with her self-employed income, between 2022 and 2024 Longville received income through three different businesses but didn\u2019t declare any of it for income tax purposes.<\/p>\n

She set up a company called \u201cKaizen 1991 Limited\u201d in 2023 and listed someone else\u2019s name as its director. <\/p>\n

The bank account used when Kaizen registered with Inland Revenue was changed about a month later to a joint account, with her as one of the account holders.<\/p>\n

She made several attempts to get money in GST returns but these were declined by the IRD after the information requested was not provided.<\/p>\n

She would make GST claims with false invoices, including one for a $65,000 vehicle, and some account statements, but Kaizen never traded and didn\u2019t provide or receive any services.<\/p>\n

She also set up \u201cThe Strand Cafe and Bar 2024 Ltd\u201d, using one of her aliases, and it went into receivership three months later.<\/p>\n

She registered the business for GST and, a couple of weeks later, registered it as an employer. The bank account provided was her personal account.<\/p>\n

Several times in 2024, she filed GST returns and filed false documents to support them.<\/p>\n

Again, she claimed GST for several vehicles – including a Nissan X-Trail which she had acquired using fraudulent means: She used her former employer\u2019s details to apply for finance, got a loan, and bought the vehicle, which was later repossessed.<\/p>\n

She also made a GST claim for a Ford Ranger, which was later found to be in a car yard and had never been purchased by Knedler.<\/p>\n

She had, however, used it as security for another loan, despite having never purchased it. The security placed against the car was only discovered when the car yard had a legitimate buyer approach to buy the vehicle. <\/p>\n

Knedler\u2019s house was searched in August 2024 and three bundles of sales records for the caf\u00e9 were found. <\/p>\n

They showed around $20,000 worth of cash sales that were not declared for tax. She also did not declare or pay tax deductions made from employees\u2019 pay.<\/p>\n

Over three-and-a-half years, Knedler attempted to obtain $45,901.95 in GST, related to Kaizen; and $49,078.13 in GST, related to The Strand Cafe.<\/p>\n

She received $20,130.81 in FAM credits; and failed to declare about $72,439 in self-employed and business income between 2022 and 2024.<\/p>\n

False passport applications, in other people\u2019s names<\/p>\n

The two Department of Internal Affairs charges were laid under another of Knedler\u2019s aliases, Karina Hollows.<\/p>\n

These charges related to Knedler making two false passport applications, using other women\u2019s names.<\/p>\n

She used RealME accounts to make the applications, using the same email address for both, and with the same cellphone number associated.<\/p>\n

The security question related to the middle name of one of Knedler\u2019s children.<\/p>\n

One of the women who had her maiden name used for the application, when interviewed by a Department of Internal Affairs investigator, \u201cimmediately\u201d nominated Hollows as a suspect, and confirmed it was her in the photo attached to the application.<\/p>\n

When Knedler was first called by an investigator, on the phone number she\u2019d provided for the false applications, she confirmed she had made an application, and that she needed to travel to see a \u201cfather figure\u201d who was dying in Australia.<\/p>\n

\u2018Deceitful, fraudulent behaviour\u2019 says judge<\/p>\n

Judge Cameron gave an earlier sentence indication with a starting point of two years imprisonment on the Crown charges, 18 months imprisonment on the IRD charges, and 12 months imprisonment on the Department of Internal Affairs charges, with a three-month uplift for the police charge of theft by a person in a special relationship.<\/p>\n

He gave a 20% discount for her guilty plea, and 10% for her background matters, which included her addiction issues.<\/p>\n

He noted Knedler had offered to pay $8000 in reparation, which she expected to receive in an upcoming relationship property settlement.<\/p>\n

But the judge said while this offer was to her credit, it didn\u2019t justify a further discount.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe losses she has caused are truly enormous, and she simply will not be in the position to make any substantial repayment… $8,000 could almost be described as trivial in respect of the overall losses she has caused to others by her calculating, deceitful, fraudulent behaviour.\u201d<\/p>\n

He ordered the $8000 reparation be paid, however, and sentenced her to three years\u2019, five months\u2019 and 21 days\u2019 imprisonment.<\/p>\n

Hannah Bartlett is a Tauranga-based Open Justice reporter at NZME. She previously covered court and local government for the Nelson Mail, and before that was a radio reporter at Newstalk ZB.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"At her recent sentencing in the Tauranga District Court, the Crown asked Judge David Cameron to take Knedler\u2019s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":380620,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[1349,7557,6126,78,135145,197959,111,43,139,69,5161,1227,223],"class_list":{"0":"post-380619","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-zealand","8":"tag-court","9":"tag-district","10":"tag-fraudster","11":"tag-in","12":"tag-karina","13":"tag-knedler","14":"tag-new-zealand","15":"tag-news","16":"tag-newzealand","17":"tag-nz","18":"tag-sentenced","19":"tag-tauranga","20":"tag-the"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/380619","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=380619"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/380619\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/380620"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=380619"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=380619"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=380619"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}