Daughter sentenced after stealing father's retirement fund

A woman has been sentenced for stealing from her father's bank account. Photo / File

A 66-year-old man cannot afford to retire and will have to "work until he drops" after his daughter stole $33,000 from his bank accounts, a court has been told.

Kirby Freida Seymour, 24, showed no emotion in Gisborne District Court when she pleaded guilty to using a BNZ website and a Kiwibank website to obtain a pecuniary advantage.

She was sentenced to 10 months' home detention and ordered to pay reparation of $10,000 at $50 a week.

Judge David Ruth said she controlled her father's bank accounts electronically.

The victim said he could not believe what his "own flesh and blood" had done to him. "Everything I have worked for has gone."

Judge Ruth said Seymour was living with her father and made 321 direct credit payments from his accounts to hers involving sums ranging $20 to $1500.

Seymour took $33,063 from August 2010 to March 2012.

Her father became aware of the fraud only when Gisborne District Council told him his rates were in arrears.

Seymour told police that her father "should not have trusted her".

Judge Ruth said no other criminal charges had been laid, but the victim believed other family members had also committed similar acts against him.

He had lost his retirement fund and would have to work until he dropped.