Auckland Airport employee admits $1.8 million fraud

Auckland International Airport Limited referred the matter to the SFO in February this year. Photo / Grant Bradley

A former Auckland Airport employee has admitted to defrauding her ex-employers to the amount of $1.8m in the District Court at Auckland today.

Teremoana Kimiangatau, 53, pled guilty on all three charges of "obtaining by deception", laid by the Serious Fraud Office [SFO].

The former airport accounts clerk, of 18 years, had transferred funds from the company's bank account to her own account.

She did this by changing the client bank account numbers to her own within the airport's accounting system.

Auckland International Airport Limited had referred the matter to the SFO in February this year.

Kimiangatau was also dismissed from her role in February.

SFO director Julie Read said there were some risk factors that had given rise to the employee's ability to offend.

She urged other employees to ensure checks and balances were in place to detect fraud.

"And most importantly those checks need to be taken seriously, as opposed to treating them as nothing more than a box-ticking exercise."

She said Kimiangatau's responsibilities had allowed her to pass invoices for authorisation many times, without being challenged.