KEY POINTS:
Former insurance company managing director Blair John Fitzsimons, today pleaded guilty to eight charges involving the embezzlement of $3 million which almost sent a Napier company broke last year.
Fitzsimons, 40, was managing director of Pioneer Insurance, a Napier company providing services in the motor vehicle sales industry.
He pleaded guilty to three charges of forgery and five of dishonestly using documents in Napier District Court today.
Fitzsimons first appeared on the charges laid by the Serious Fraud Office in Hamilton in February.
He was convicted today by Judge Tony Adeane and remanded on bail for sentencing on October 3.
Pioneer company representatives were present as SFO counsel Nicholas Davidson QC read part of a statement of facts, before the judge shortened the hearing.
He allowed the statement to be released in written form. It detailed how Fitzsimons used the company resources to prop up his own vehicle rental firm in a spate of offences between December 2005 and November 2006 and then used fraudulent cheques, including one of over $500,000 in an attempt to conceal the crimes.
In a statement released by defence counsel Scott Jefferson, Fitzsimons apologised for the offending and said no one else was involved in committing the crimes.
- NZPA
