Man guilty of $1.4m business theft

Photo / Greg Bowker

An Auckland businessman pleaded guilty to seven Serious Fraud Office charges at the Auckland District Court today for stealing $1.4 million from a family-owned business in Penrose.

Martyn Scott, 51, from Meadowbank, was remanded in custody until sentencing on January 27.

He pleaded guilty to using a computer for dishonest purposes while he was employed as the general manager of National Fire & Security - a security equipment supply business - owned by Steven Mahoney.

He stole $1.4 million between 2003 to 2009, and at one point was asked by Mahoney to investigate where the disappearing money was going and why suppliers had not been paid.

The SFO said the charges relate to the manipulation of National Fire & Security's accounting system.

Serious Fraud Office chief executive, Adam Feeley, said: "while the SFO is investigating and prosecuting cases involving hundreds of millions of dollars, we have not lost sight of the need to also hold smaller scale fraudsters to account for the losses they cause to the public."

The conviction is the seventh SFO conviction this financial year, with a further 30 cases currently under prosecution.

Scott redirected invoice payments that were meant for suppliers to bank accounts he controlled.

The SFO said he varied the method to divert payments due to genuine suppliers or would create false supplier invoices to substantiate payments paid to his bank account.

He has paid back a significant amount of the money he stole.

National Fire & Security is an importer and distributor of low voltage electronic supplies.

The company was founded in 1991 and was taken over by Mahoney in 1995.

The company's website said CCTV systems had been a major growth area for the business.

Scott is expected to serve a jail term - there are no fines for such offences.

Feeley said the SFO was taking on bigger cases, and was seeing more custodial sentences being ordered by the courts.

"It is apparent that the scale of losses and impact on society through white collar crime is beginning to be increasingly recognised by the decisions of the courts in these cases," he said.

Feeley said that the dollar value of SFO cases had risen dramatically in the past year with the losses to investors and victims in SFO cases under investigation now averaging approximately $35M per case.