Accountant jailed for cheating elderly pair

An Invercargill accountant who cheated an elderly couple of more than $260,000 to feed a gambling addiction was jailed for two years and nine months when she appeared in the Invercargill District Court yesterday.

Bernadette Patricia Maria Burke, 45, admitted 30 charges of cheque fraud between June 2000 and December 2003. She was also ordered to pay $20,000 reparation, at $25 a week, once released from jail.

Burke was a senior at an accountancy firm for 17 years. Two of her clients were Ralph and May Heenan, of Mossburn, and she became a trustee of their estate.

Judge Colin Doherty said Burke betrayed the trust of a couple who regarded her as a friend. "It was premeditated, systematic theft from vulnerable people that treated you like family."

Burke became such an important part of the couple's life that, when Mr Heenan died in 2002, he left her $72,000 in his will.

"You continued to steal from the wife," Judge Doherty said.

- NZPA