Escort sentenced over heist money

A female escort has been sentenced to community detention for knowingly receiving money which came from the $170,000 heist of an Armourguard branch.

Armourguard manager Stanley Tunnicliffe, 47, burgled the company's Blenheim branch on January 14.

He was arrested a month later. He pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 3 1/2 years' jail in May, the Dominion Post reported.

Before the burglary, Tunnicliffe would give 48-year-old escort Cherie Ann Scott up to $100 a week. Afterwards, he was giving her about $1200 a week, according to the police summary of facts.

On February 4, Scott asked him for $5000 so she could visit a sick family member in Dunedin.

Tunnicliffe gave her the money, plus $2000 for her to buy an engagement ring.

Police arrested Scott in a Dunedin motel room on February 18. She denied any knowledge of Tunnicliffe's involvement in the burglary, saying the only money she had received from him was $500 "for an all-night job" and a $50 loan.

A few days later she admitted receiving the money from Tunnicliffe, and said she had known about his involvement in the heist.

Appearing in the district court in Napier, where Scott had recently moved, Judge Bridget Mackintosh sentenced her to four months' community detention and one year's supervision, and ordered her to pay $2000 reparation.

- NZPA