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The judge said he had never seen a defendant of the calibre of Craig Ross, but was obliged to treat him the same as everyone else who broke the law.
The former Rowing New Zealand chief executive was yesterday sentenced on nine charges of forging documents which he used to gain grants of almost $370,000 for the organisation.
Judge Thomas Ingram fined Ross $5000 each on two of the charges. He was convicted and discharged on the remaining seven counts.
Ross' lawyer, Paul Mabey, QC, had argued for a full discharge without conviction, saying Ross had gained nothing personally from the fraud, and none of the charitable trusts from which he received the grants wanted the money repaid.
He said Ross would suffer greatly if convicted, including losing his job as manager of Mt Maunganui's Baypark stadium, and ruining his chances of continuing a successful career in sports management.
During a one-and-a-half-hour submission at the Tauranga District Court, Mr Mabey read testimonials from many well-known figures in the rowing and wider sporting worlds who spoke of Ross' "honesty", "integrity" and "dedication".
Olympic rowers Mahe Drysdale and the Evers-Swindell twins, cyclist Sarah Ulmer, sports commentator Murray Deaker and Rowing NZ chairman Bill Falconer were among those who wrote letters in support of the 52-year-old.
Said Judge Ingram: "In my time on the bench, I have never seen a collection of testimonials of the nature and quality provided to me here."
He agreed that Ross had probably contributed more to Rowing NZ than any other person, but he had sullied the organisation's reputation, and betrayed the trust of the charities which supplied the money in carrying out the fraud. The judge said that by creating false invoices for rowing equipment, forging signatures, and concocting fake minutes of Rowing NZ board meetings to support funding applications, Ross had "lost any sense of judgment".
The court heard that Ross had come under intense pressure from rowing coaches to buy Italian rather than New Zealand-made skiffs before a European championships which led to some of the fraud.
He had already received grants to buy equipment from Kiwi International Rowing Skiffs and did not report to the charities that the Italian ones had in fact been purchased.
Mr Mabey said Ross had stupidly taken shortcuts, but compared his case to that of teenage cyber-hacker Owen Walker, who was last week discharged without conviction because the judge said a criminal record would stop him putting his considerable talent to positive use in the future.
However, police argued that regardless of his reputation, Ross should be treated the same as every other defendant, and deterrence to others was important.
