A woman from New Zealand was spared jail after she pleaded guilty to stealing over $200,000 from her employer to fund a gambling addiction. [Image: Shutterstock.com]

Fraudster spared jail

A New Zealand woman stole over NZ$360,941 ($215,953) from her employer to fund her gambling addiction will be spared jail.

Robertson has repaid the money in full, as well as interest and legal fees after the civil case.

The Hutt Valley District Court heard Sally Anne Robertson, 59, stole the funds which were taken from a civil engineering company she worked for. Robertson has repaid the money in full, as well as interest and legal fees after the civil case.

After hearing that Robertson was under stress and was seeking treatment for her gambling addiction, Judge Tania Warburton opted against a prison sentence for Robertson, sentencing her instead of five months of community detention for the thefts.

Deception revealed

Robertson siphoned the money from SBA Civil Ltd, the company she worked for over 12 months, at which she held the sole administrative role and was one of only two people at the entire organization who had access to the business’ bank account.

Robertson changed the payment details on invoices billed to suppliers 37 times so that incoming payments were diverted to her own accounts. The money was then spent to fund her gambling addiction, the court heard.

She was caught when one supplier questioned one of the payments, which caused the alarm to be raised over the thefts.

Mitigating circumstances

Robertson pleaded guilty to a charge of theft by a person in a special relationship, breaking down in tears with her husband after she was sentenced.

Her lawyer, James Mahuta-Coyle, stated that Robertson was under severe family pressure, first having to care for her elderly mother, and then for her father and sister.

“She found herself, unfortunately, in the grip of addiction that led to the offending,” Mahuta-Coyle said, for which she has sought and is currently receiving treatment.

Meanwhile, in a victim statement, the main shareholder of the engineering company from which the funds were stolen declared that the theft had caused he and his own family considerable stress.

“Your offending was bad, but I want to stress that you are not a bad person,” Judge Warburton stated during sentencing. As part of her community detention, Robertson can continue to live at home and go to work, but must remain indoors every night between 7pm and 7am.