Fraudster swindled $200,000 for pokies

A Tauranga woman who swindled close to $200,000 in cash, loans, credit, goods and services using stolen identities, including family members, blew most of the cash on pokie machines.
Gina Odelle Potae, 33, pleaded guilty to 22 charges of fraud when she appeared in Tauranga District Court yesterday.
She admitted seven charges of obtaining a document with intent to defraud, 14 of using a document with intent to defraud, one charge of obtaining a pecuniary by deception, and also admitted breaching her release conditions.
According to the summary of facts, between March 21, 2006 and September 30 this year, Potae used stolen identity documents including birth certificates, pay slips, driving licences, student IDs and invoices, in the name of her partner and two cousins to open bank accounts, obtain loans and credit card facilities from banks and other institutions.
Potae used the cards, loans, and in one case a cheque book, to obtain cash, credit, goods and services from retailers. On November 30 last year she presented a cheque for $32,990 to Ultimate Motor Group to buy a Ford Telstra.
On March 22 this year, representing herself as her cousin, Potae presented her cousin's birth certificate as identification and obtained a $40,000 loan from Bridging Finance.
The money was deposited into a Credit Union account in her name. Potae drew on these sums using an eftpos card and, over time, spent all the money.
According to the preliminary reparation schedule $180,870.12 is owed to GE Money, Bridging Finance Limited, BNZ Fraud Unit, National Bank, ASB Bank, Retail Financial Services (Farmers) and Westpac Card Operations Unit.
The latter is owed $60,411 while Bridging Finance Ltd has already taken legal action to recoup $45,686.89.
A full reparation report is yet to be obtained.
When interviewed by Tauranga police CIB Detective Alan Kingsbury on November 1, Potae admitted the charges.
Potae also told Mr Kingsbury that $92,000 had been deposited into a family trust account and she wanted to put that towards paying all the reparation.
In court yesterday her lawyer Craig Tuck argued that because there were no sentencing dates available until January and Potae was trying through a number of "legitimate sources" to pay back most, if not all of the money, she should bailed in the meantime.
Mr Tuck said Potae, who had a gambling addiction, had co-operated fully with police.
"She is very focused on seeing what she did to her victims is put right and she is unlikely to reoffend while on bail and could be placed under a 24-hour curfew," he told Judge Thomas Ingram.
Prosecutor Sergeant Wayne Hunter said police opposed bail because of Potae's history of breaching bail conditions. He had no confidence she would abide by a curfew.
Judge Ingram said he was more concerned about the risk of Potae reoffending given her ``appalling history' of dishonesty offending but was persuaded to grant bail on the understanding that if she breached her curfew she would be remanded in custody.
Potae will be sentenced in late January.
Outside court Mr Kingsbury told the Bay of Plenty Times that the places Potae mostly frequented had been Auckland's SkyCity Casino, Hamilton Casino, Bureta Park Motor Inn, and other similar establishments around Tauranga.
He was unable to confirm exactly how much of the $200,000 Potae gambled away but said that may become clearer when a pre-sentence report is completed.
The case comes as the Problem Gambling Foundation has revealed spending on pokie machines by people in Tauranga increased by $500,000 in the past year _ the biggest rise in New Zealand.
A whopping $30 million was spent in Tauranga on pokie machines last year while nationally the figure was more than $1.3 billion.
Paulette Goddard, PGF Midland regional manager, said pokies were highly addictive because they provided users with repetitive almost unlimited quick ``hits' or games which caused the user to create a strong bond with the machines.
"Many users just don't understand pokies are designed to take money off them."