ANZ fraudster who stole $190,000 from bank sentenced to 11 months' home detention

The man appeared in the Wellington District Court today for sentencing. Photo / File

A bank employee who stole more than $190,000 from his company has been put on home detention.

The man, who has interim name suppression, was working as a customer care administrator in the insurance section of ANZ when he defrauded the bank with more than 100 transactions, according to the summary of facts.

He pleaded guilty to six counts of accessing a computer system for dishonest purposes and appeared today in the Wellington District Court for sentencing.

The 41-year-old had been working in his role since 2008 and was on sick leave when his manager discovered evidence of his fraud.

The manager had access to the employee's emails so he could handle daily customer inquiries. He found a number of emails the man had sent to himself containing his own bank account number.

An analysis revealed when customers had contacted ANZ to cancel their life insurance policies, the man would alter their account number to his own and submit a false instruction arranging an unauthorised refund for that customer.

The unauthorised refund would instead go to his own bank account. The customers did not qualify for a refund and were not expecting one.

Other staff processed the payments without realising it was a false instruction.

In total he stole $191,101.08.

ANZ was the sole victim and sustained the full loss of the fraudulent payments, which were processed between early 2013 and mid 2018.

The man's lawyer said if it weren't for his "addictions" the offending would not have happened.

Judge Denys Barry said the offending "came on the back of the twin addictions of alcohol and gambling", and that the man had since taken steps to address these issues. He said the addictions went "hand in hand" with an anxiety disorder.

He sentenced him to 11 months of home detention.