Former national women's rugby league team physio Skye Renes, who was found guilty of ACC fraud in 2019, was this week found guilty of stealing from and defrauding a local sports store.
Former national women's rugby league team physio Skye Renes, who was found guilty of ACC fraud in 2019, was this week found guilty of stealing from and defrauding a local sports store.
Former high-profile sports physiotherapist Skye Renes took advantage of her status as a long-standing customer of the Whangārei branch of sporting goods store Rebel Sport to steal from and defraud the outlet.
That was the Crown’s contention at a jury trial for Renes in Whangārei District Court last week - and the jury agreed.
After deliberating for about five hours and having asked to review in-store CCTV footage produced in Crown evidence, the jury found Renes guilty of two charges: theft of clothing worth more than $1000 and using a document to obtain a pecuniary advantage - a store receipt to get a refund for a pair of shoes she had stolen.
While no longer practising as a physio, she continued to excel in her own sporting pursuits and is a champion lawn bowls player. Renes had been a regular customer at the Okara Park branch of Rebel Sports for about 10 years, the jury heard.
Staff at the store were so familiar with Renes they didn’t count or limit the number of clothing items she could try on and removed security tags from shoes so she could try them on more comfortably, prosecutor Danica Soich told the jury.
Renes took advantage of that, and on August 7, 2022, the store manager discovered numerous swing tags hidden behind a hygiene poster on a changing room wall and empty shoeboxes on shelves. It triggered a chain of inquiries that led to Renes, who’d been in the store earlier that day and the day before.
Talented local bowls player Skye Renes has been found guilty of further dishonesty offences.
In a circumstantial case that relied on a combination of the store’s CCTV footage and evidence from staff, Soich said the jury could infer that on August 6, 2022, Renes left the store with several items of clothing concealed under hers. Footage showed Renes handling items that matched the hidden swing tags and taking those items to the changing room.
The following day she brought a pram with her to the store, and footage showed her movements were consistent with her hiding items under it. Also that day, she fraudulently used a legitimate receipt to get a refund for a pair of shoes, which staff had earlier de-tagged.
She claimed to have previously bought the shoes in Pukekohe and that they were meant to be size 10s but she had been mistakenly given size 8.5s.
Later, a police search of her house uncovered many items matching those for which swing tags were found hidden in the store and a pair of size-10 shoes believed to have been ones for which the Pukekohe store receipt was legitimately issued.
Soich claimed Renes had been “tipped off” about the investigation and had got rid of some items. Renes denied this.
Electing to give evidence, Renes said she hadn’t taken anything from the store without paying. The refund transaction was legitimate. The discovery of items at her house matching those missing from the store was “coincidental”.
Soich said the discovery of one matching item might have been a coincidence, “But in this case, every single empty box and almost every every swing tag found matches up to an item handled by this defendant.”
In closing submissions, Renes’ counsel Adam Pell said the Crown case sounded good when you first heard it, but didn’t stand up to scrutiny, and in fact, this case was a classic example of the dangers of jumping to conclusions regarding inclusive facts and an incomplete investigation using speculation and guesswork.
Renes had receipts for the items found in her home. They were commonly purchased items and could be expected to be in this particularly sporting household.
No one at the store saw Renes steal anything or heard any alarm go off, yet branded items she was alleged to have taken would have been security-tagged.
There was ample opportunity on August 6 and 7 for other customers at the store to have taken the items and removed the swing tags.
