{"id":533165,"date":"2026-07-19T04:34:08","date_gmt":"2026-07-19T04:34:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/533165\/"},"modified":"2026-07-19T04:34:08","modified_gmt":"2026-07-19T04:34:08","slug":"judge-declines-reparation-after-worker-steals-88-iphones-and-a-laptop","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/533165\/","title":{"rendered":"Judge declines reparation after worker steals 88 iPhones and a laptop"},"content":{"rendered":"

In the Wellington<\/a> District Court<\/a> this week, her lawyer, Isaac Melvin, sought a discharge without conviction, citing the consequences of a conviction on her visa, not only for his client but also for her children, stressing the offending was out of character.<\/p>\n

Police opposed the application, saying the consequences of the offending weren\u2019t out of proportion with the gravity of the offending, which was assessed as moderately serious.<\/p>\n

In considering whether to grant the application, Judge Jennifer Binns referred to affidavits from an immigration lawyer, who said a discharge without conviction would place the woman in a much stronger position in terms of immigration consequences.<\/p>\n

Whereas if the woman were convicted, the lawyer said, the likelihood of her leaving New Zealand was inevitable.<\/p>\n

Judge Binns acknowledged that deportation would have a significant effect on the woman, her family, and possibly her children.<\/p>\n

But she declined the application, saying the consequences of a conviction weren\u2019t out of proportion with the gravity of the offending, which included the significant sums of money involved, the agreed reparation figure of $158,000, and, although the woman had pleaded guilty to a representative charge, the judge noted the offending involved repeated acts of dishonesty.<\/p>\n

Melvin said that since his client had lost her job, she\u2019d undertaken voluntary work, was remorseful, and had written a letter of apology to her previous employer. She\u2019d also undertaken counselling.<\/p>\n

In sentencing the woman, Judge Binns adopted a starting point of three years\u2019 jail.<\/p>\n

After including discounts for the guilty plea, remorse, and offer of reparation, previous good character and rehabilitation prospects, as well as the impact on her children, the judge imposed a sentence of 10 months\u2019 home detention.<\/p>\n

But the judge declined to order reparation, saying that with the woman\u2019s offer to repay the debt at $5 a week, it would take her 600 years.<\/p>\n

Even paying off the company\u2019s 25,000 insurance excess was unrealistic, she said.<\/p>\n

After the woman\u2019s lawyer indicated she would appeal the decision, the judge agreed to suppress the woman\u2019s name, pending the outcome of that appeal.<\/p>\n

Catherine Hutton is an Open Justice reporter, based in Wellington. She has worked as a journalist at the Waikato Times and RNZ. Most recently she was working as a media adviser at the Ministry of Justice.<\/p>\n

Join the NZ Herald\u2019s Open Justice team for Case by Case<\/a>, a video and podcast series examining the disputes and decisions making headlines across New Zealand.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In the Wellington District Court this week, her lawyer, Isaac Melvin, sought a discharge without conviction, citing the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":533166,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[263076,51086,29184,74,95,69709,27505,3116,793,1644,5647,3958,761,111,43,139,69,29691,2730,15141,252767,56425,17892,12637,13797,1354,12767,19985],"class_list":["post-533165","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-263076","tag-51086","tag-account","tag-after","tag-and","tag-cashstrapped","tag-declines","tag-employers","tag-felt","tag-financial","tag-iphones","tag-judge","tag-laptop","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-order","tag-personal","tag-pressures","tag-reparation","tag-squeeze","tag-steals","tag-together","tag-used","tag-woman","tag-worker","tag-worth"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/533165","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=533165"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/533165\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/533166"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=533165"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=533165"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=533165"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}