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A bankrupt builder befriended an amateur North Shore theatre troupe then breached their trust to systematically defraud the charity of $60,000, even using his child's bank account to hide the stolen money.
Nicholas James Greer, 45, was yesterday sentenced in Auckland District Court to nine and a half months' home detention after admitting one representative charge of theft by a person in a special relationship.
Greer stole the money in 49 fraudulent online banking transfers over eight months from Shoreside Theatre in Milford where he used to build sets before volunteering as treasurer.
The offending devastated the small volunteer-run organisation which nearly folded due to its debts. The thespian group couldn't believe they had been duped by someone they counted as a friend.
Bankrupt builder Nicholas James Greer has been sentenced for stealing more than $60,000 from a North Shore theatre trust. Photo / Supplied
Judge Anna-Marie Skellern read a letter of apology yesterday from Greer to his victims in which he accepted his guilt, saying he felt a deep sense of shame.
"I deeply regret my behaviour.
"I have no excuse for what I did. It was wrong.
"My actions affected not just Shoreside Theatre but also my wife and children."
The Herald can reveal Greer is a double bankrupt who ran a failed building company, BG Projects Ltd, which collapsed into liquidation in 2019 owing $500,000 to 22 unsecured creditors.
One of them told the Herald she paid more than $200,000 for work which Greer never completed.
A Facebook page has been set up where many of Greer's aggrieved customers share stories about their dealings with the now-convicted fraudster.
Greer is currently employed by Craft Homes Ltd. A post on the company's Facebook page in June says he is a project manager and lead foreman.
The insolvency register shows Greer is an undischarged bankrupt who has twice been tipped into insolvency, in 2004 and 2020.
Shoreside Theatre's popular annual Shakespeare in the Park production at the PumpHouse Theatre in Takapuna. Photo / Supplied
A summary of facts says the not-for-profit theatre organisation is run by unpaid volunteers.
Greer was appointed treasurer in 2011 but his offending only began in 2019.
He was in charge of paying theatre creditors for supplies for house shows and for operational expenses.
Greer would log in to the charity's ASB account and make payments to accounts linked to him, his building company, his wife and 6-year-old son, but code the transitions to legitimate creditors.
The judge said he had effectively "tricked" two signatories into authorising the fraudulent payments. She described Greer's "serious and premeditated" offending as a significant breach of trust.
Greer had blamed personal financial circumstances for the theft.
The judge said he had been running a building company and was involved in a development but was "cheated and owed a great deal of money".
"You were visited by patched gang members at your house and this was the background to the offending."
Shoreside Theatre's current treasurer James Bell told the Herald Greer had joined the group as a respected businessman with a young family.
"He ran his own business and seemed to know what he was talking about with finances and was someone who could be trusted to look after the society's bank accounts."
Bell said that looking back, there had been warning signs. Greer would sometimes miss meetings or say financial records had been corrupted.
"He was sounding these warnings that we were running out of money but he was the one taking all the money."
Shoreside Theatre's popular annual Shakespeare in the Park production at the PumpHouse Theatre in Takapuna. Photo / Supplied
The fraud was uncovered when the nation went into lockdown in 2020, and several creditors got in touch to say, "You haven't paid your bills".
The theatre group launched an investigation and found Greer had been siphoning money from the accounts.
The effect of Greer's dishonesty had been devastating, Bell said.
"It all came to a head at once. We had Covid, which meant we had to cancel shows. We had to move out of an industrial unit because we had no money to pay the rent."
The group also had to get rid of costumes, props and sets, which were thrown in a skip bin as there was nowhere to store them.
The charity only survived due to the generosity of the theatre community who fundraised to keep the group afloat.
"Without that we wouldn't have survived."
Bell said Greer never divulged his bankruptcy to the theatre committee.
Members were initially reluctant to go to police, due to their concerns for Greer's wellbeing and his young family.
"But at the end of the day, he's stolen $60,000 from us. That's just us. Other people have come out of the woodwork he allegedly owes money to."
Bell said he was aware of customers of Greer's building company who claimed to have paid for work that was never completed, which suggested a "pattern of behaviour".
Ahead of the sentencing, Bell said he wanted Greer to acknowledge his wrongdoing.
"I want him to step up and say, 'Yes I did this. I manipulated and deceived people', but more to the point to take responsibility for it, because he never did that."
Greer faced a maximum penalty of seven years in prison. However, Judge Skellern sentenced him to home detention so he could continue working to repay his victims.
Greer has already repaid about $10,000 and deposited $22,000 into a court trust account. The judge ordered him to repay the outstanding $27,719.76 in weekly instalments of $300.
