Destiny Church member Ashara Jaymie Kingi, 33, was sentenced to two years and two months jail after stealing $377,167.92 from her employer Larry John O'Neill while employed part-time as his bookkeeper.
A woman trusted to look after the finances of a 72-year-old Tauranga man in part because he saw her as a respected member of Destiny Church stole nearly $380,000 from him and spent more than $100,000 of it on fast food, restaurants, gambling and layby.
Ashara Jaymie Lee Kingi, 33, illegally took money from Larry John O’Neill’s bank account 200 times over 19 months - an act of betrayal that ‘’disgusted’' him. Some of the offending happened after he was recovering from a heart attack.
“She was a good actor who portrayed herself as a good Christian woman. She was always buzzing and happy while she was stealing from me,” he told the Bay of Plenty Times.
“Her selfish actions have caused a lot of stress for me and my family ... It’s impacted my health and damaged my trust in other people. I’ve had lots of sleepless nights.”
Kingi, a single mother, appeared for sentencing in Tauranga District Court on April 19 after pleading guilty to a charge of theft by a person in a special relationship.
Judge Melinda Mason jailed her for two years and two months and ordered her to pay $350,000 in reparation.
The police summary said Kingi began working as a part-time bookkeeper for O’Neill on April 1, 2021, and her duties included paying invoices online. She had access to the victim’s account and was authorised to pay herself $300 monthly.
O’Neill’s account had a $200,000 Flexi Loan attached to it and interest was only charged when amounts were drawn down.
The summary said that on April 23, 2021, Kingi transferred $235 from O’Neill’s account to hers and from April 23, 2021, to November 29, 2022, she made a further 199 illegal transfers of funds to her account - resulting in total losses of $377,167.69.
To try and hide the illegal withdrawals, Kingi entered legitimate creditor details on the account records but changed the bank account payment details, the summary said.
Some of Kingi’s offending was committed after the victim had a heart attack in June 2022 and was recuperating with family, it said.
O’Neill became suspicious when he saw $7000 taken from his account in November 2022 to pay for hay and the creditor confirmed the invoice had been previously paid.
Further checks by family members revealed many unlawful transfers into two bank accounts.
This included $200,000 drawn from his Flexi Loan account, which he will have to repay including interest, the cost of which was unknown, according to the summary.
The summary said that police checks of Kingi’s bank records revealed during the offending period, $47,135 was spent on fast food and restaurants, $7,352 at petrol stations, $17,465 on layby-spending, $45,818 was gambling-associated spending and she made $31,309 worth of ATM cash withdrawals.
During the same period, the defendant transferred $44,667 into the bank accounts of her brother and her parents, the summary said.
In November 2022, Kingi sent a text message to O’Neill apologising and told the police: “I am sorry. I just got addicted to it”.
In court, Judge Mason said she wanted to acknowledge the victim seated in the public gallery and read his victim impact statement on his behalf.
In his victim statement, O’Neill said he had employed Kingi as he knew her family and knew that she was a solo mother and a respected member of Destiny Church, and considered she would be honest and trustworthy and have good values.
O’Neill also said in the statement that in November 2022, when he went to pay the deposit on a property he was buying, he found his Flexi Loan account was overdrawn by $200,000.
He had also supported many at-risk youths in this area including sponsoring nearly 30 children on the Spirit of Adventure programme.
Kingi’s offending meant he had to borrow $500,000 at high interest from another lending organisation because his bank turned him down for a loan due to his accounts showing “substantial losses”.
Kingi’s lawyer, Renee Harley, urged Judge Melinda Mason to grant her client home detention and argued it was the “least restrictive outcome” after she accepted the starting point for this offending must be three years and six months in prison.
Harley said Kingi had felt “isolated” at home and failed to reach out to an available support system.
She said her client had taken steps to address this and re-engaged in counselling to ensure she did not get into a similar position again.
Kingi was “fully co-operative” with the theft investigation even before the police got involved and deserved credit for this and participating in a restorative justice meeting, her apology letters and offers to make amends.
“I note her family, albeit a long way off in terms of it being able to eventuate, has offered to divert Ms Kingi’s inheritance to pay reparation off to assist the victim.”
Harley said Kingi was on a limited income but offered to pay $1000 reparation to the court immediately, and had done everything she could to try and put things right.
“Yes, $1000 is a drop in the bucket but she is committed to paying reparation moving forward if she is granted home detention.”
Harley said Kingi told her that she would do “whatever” it takes to show the court, the victim and the community she had “absolutely no intention” of offending in the future.
“She is here today to accept whatever the outcome might be. She is expecting the worst and hoping for the best.”
Harley said in terms of rehabilitation prospects, Kingi had engaged in counselling and re-engaged with the Legacy programme and in court were members of Legacy and her family, who were “fully committed” to supporting her.
Judge Mason said it was to Kingi’s credit that she had been prepared to meet with her victim and apologise.
“Unfortunately though, that doesn’t help him recover the money, and it is simply unrealistic that you are ever going to be able to pay the full amount of money you stole.”
The judge said she accepted Kingi’s guilty plea was entered at an early stage, but her offending began right from the start of her working relationship with the victim.
“And it would have gone on further, I imagine, if it hadn’t been discovered in November 2022. You deserve no credit for the fact that the offending ended. "
Judge Mason said she was willing to give Kingi discounts for having suffered from addiction issues, giving back to her community by helping children, her expressed remorse, prior good character and the offer to pay $1000 reparation which was “a drop in the ocean”.
But the judge refused to give Kingi a discount for saying sorry.
“Saying sorry is not making amends when you spend $370,000 of someone else’s money. So there will be no discount for that.”
Judge Mason said Kingi’s cultural background report described her as having an “idyllic childhood” with incredibly supportive parents, who were good Christian people.
“It does refer to some drug and gambling issues in your adult life, but in my view, these came from choices you made as an adult to get involved in that sort of lifestyle.
“You cannot blame childhood trauma for any of your behaviour. In fact, your parents are good people and are an asset to this community,” she told Kingi
O’Neill told the Bay of Plenty Times he felt “justice had been done”.
He said he hired Kingi after a relative recommended her. He also knew she was a respected Destiny Church member and came from a “very religious” good family.
“I feel very sorry for my (relative) and Ashara’s shocked parents (and family) ... I hope Ashara is sitting in prison thinking about that.”
O’Neill doubted he would ever see a cent of the reparation ordered.
He would “never forgive” Kingi because her crime meant he had to stop his charitable works including supporting at-risk youth and caring for injured and unwanted animals.
Raised by a solo parent, O’Neill said he had always offered to help others if he had any “money in his pockets”.
Fortunately, he still had a source of income, otherwise, he would have been " buggered” and had to sell everything to pay outstanding bills.
For most of his working life, O’Neill said he worked overseas as a project manager for a construction company and telecommunication companies and used his savings to invest in commercial and residential properties in NZ, with his main source of income from a commercial property in Mount Maunganui.
“It’s hard to get my head around how anyone could do this especially after I helped support Ashara ... Fortunately, this didn’t ruin me, but I’m very disappointed and disgusted.”
“I’m very embarrassed to be taken advantage of like this and most people regularly check their bank accounts. I had thought all the account system checks and balances were in place to prevent this from happening. Clearly, that was wrong and my trust in Ashara was misplaced.”
He said Kingi kept saying how sorry she was at the restorative justice meeting.
But in his opinion: “I don’t believe she’s genuinely sorry. I think Ashara is just sorry that she got caught.”
Sandra Conchie is a senior journalist at the Bay of Plenty Times and Rotorua Daily Post who has been a journalist for 24 years. She mainly covers police, court and other justice stories, as well as general news. She has been a Canon Media Awards regional/community reporter of the year.
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