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CHRISTCHURCH - Concrete layer Neil George Thomas has offered to pay back the customers he ripped off at $150 a week, but he will have to get out of jail first.
He made the offer at his sentencing on 13 charges in Christchurch District Court today, before Judge Colin Doherty sent him to prison for a year.
The judge granted leave for 38-year-old to apply for home detention and accepted his offer to repay almost $30,000 he took from 12 customers as deposits and then fed into the poker machines.
Assuming the Parole Board grants home detention, Thomas must make the first $150 payment within 28 days.
Defence counsel Tim McKenzie said Thomas had work and it was a realistic offer.
Thomas had pleaded guilty to theft and dishonestly using a cheque.
Thomas had been self-employed, operating a Christchurch firm called All About Concrete for about six months, offering free quotes and then seeking a deposit of up to 50 per cent to buy materials and secure the start date.
Householders who paid deposits ranging from $750 to $7000 to have driveways and paths concreted then heard little from him.
Judge Doherty noted that he had asked for the money in cash or cash cheques so that he could easily "whip down and feed the pokies" -- a 12-year gambling addiction.
The customers -- many of them vulnerable elderly -- spoke of betrayal in the victim impact reports. Their financial losses were significant, said crown prosecutor Ruth Thomas. In some cases they had borrowed money to get the work done.
Judge Doherty said the offending had extensive repercussions for the victims. Many could barely afford to have the work done, and one told of falling down and breaking her hip on a rough area that Thomas was supposed to have concreted.
Mr McKenzie said Thomas had begun treatment for problem gambling and arrangements had been made so that he had no access to cash.
Judge Doherty noted Thomas had a history of dishonesty, with convictions for burglary, dishonestly using a document, and theft.
He also noted that the offending had gone on for six months and only stopped "when the whistle was blown" by aggrieved customers.
The judge gave Thomas credit for his immediate guilty pleas and his remorse and ordered he attend treatment or counselling for problem gambling as part of his release conditions.
- NZPA
