Mark Cini has pleaded guilty to 39 charges relating to fraudulent offending at the Christchurch District Court. Photo / George Heard
Mark Cini has pleaded guilty to 39 charges relating to fraudulent offending at the Christchurch District Court. Photo / George Heard
A former Christchurch sports director created false documents to steal more than $180,000 worth of grants for sports gear from various organisations.
Mark Cini used the company Action Indoor Sports Centre Hornby, which he is the former director of, to create 26 false documents to obtain the grants, which he then transferred into his personal account.
The 59-year-old appeared at the Christchurch District Court on Tuesday, where he pleaded guilty to 26 charges of forgery, 11 of theft by a person in a special relationship and two of dishonest use of a document.
Cini was also on the board of multiple sports governing bodies such as New Zealand Indoor Sport Inc (NZIS) and Southern Indoor Sports Inc (SIS). He was also involved with various sports and cricket clubs which all received grant funding from Air Rescue Service (ARS).
Mark Cini will be sentenced at the Christchurch District Court on June 12. Photo / George Heard
Cini was also the manager of Robbie’s Sports Bar & Restaurant in Riccarton and, according to the summary of facts, was appointed to oversee gambling at the venue. The bar is also owned by a company called Jacquesy Holdings Limited (JHL), which Cini is one of the directors for.
The summary of facts states the Gambling Act 2023 prohibits overlap between those involved in the generation of grant funding and the subsequent distribution of grant funding.
As an employer at Action Indoor Sports Centre, Cini prepared grant applications for purchasing sporting goods or paying entry fees for various tournaments, but his name never appeared on these applications.
The grants would often be for cricket balls for indoor tournaments, netball uniforms and bowling balls, totalling up to $26,000.
Once grants were approved and paid, Cini transferred the money from the recipient’s bank account into his own personal account.
He then created false documents with invoices and bank records to be submitted to ARS, purporting the grant funds had been spent in accordance with the authorised purpose and instructing his staff to sign them off.
Cini repeated this, creating a total of 26 false documents from 2018 to 2020 until the Department of Internal Affairs turned up at his sports centre in Hornby with a search warrant on June 29, 2022.
Cini’s computer was searched, revealing his fraudulent offending amounted to $182,761.64.
His lawyer Simon Shamy said he had paid almost $160,000 in reparation but was short of $3000, which would be paid by the time he is sentenced.
Judge Murray Hunt remanded Cini on bail until his sentencing on June 12.
The Gaming Machine Association of New Zealand (GMANZ) is appalled at the abuse of the grants system carried out by Cini, it said in a statement.
GMANZ independent chairman Peter Dengate Thrush said actions like this undermine the grants system and should not be tolerated.
“The breach of trust is clearly very severe, and funds being taken from a community grant pool is beyond unacceptable. This is a deliberate abuse of a good-faith relationship. Like the rest of the community, GMANZ has zero sympathy for someone caught appropriating funds to be used for their own benefit.
“We have been calling for a regulator who will act effectively on illegal and unethical behaviour in the sector, and we are pleased to see action taken to bring those in breach to justice.”
