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A woman robbed of her life savings by her former bookkeeper, who was sent to prison for theft, has now won the civil fraud case that followed.
Convicted thief Iris Huebler has been ordered to pay former Golden Bay café owner Alexandra Purucker $868,954 and a further $50,000 for exemplary damages after the fraud was proved. Huebler’s husband, Rainer Wolfgang Huebler, was also found liable for $155,127 of that money.
Interest was also awarded and would apply until the judgment debt was paid in full, and costs are likely to follow.
The decision marks a significant turning point in a five-year battle Purucker has waged to seek justice not only for the crime committed against her but for the hurdles put up to prevent her from trying to get the money back.
Purucker told NZME after the decision was released on Friday that while she had been quietly hopeful she was “utterly grateful”.
She was, however, remaining cautious as the decision was subject to the statutory appeal period.
The Hueblers’ attempts to show they were no longer married by dividing their assets when Iris Huebler sensed the walls were closing in were seen by the High Court as an attempt to future-proof themselves and their joint assets.
Iris Huebler giving her statement in the High Court at Wellington. Photo / Ethan Griffiths
In October last year, Huebler was sentenced in the Nelson District Court to four years in prison for the $700,000 she eventually admitted taking from Purucker over the course of six years from April 2012 on the pretence she was investing on her behalf.
The summary of facts originally recorded that the amount stolen was $768,651 to which Huebler entered not guilty pleas. It was reduced to $700,000 following plea negotiations.
Huebler ultimately admitted five charges of being a person in a special relationship, receiving money she had an obligation to manage.
A fair portion of the siphoned funds was money from Purucker’s former café business in Tākaka and the proceeds of its sale, plus an inheritance from Purucker’s family in Germany.
The pair met after Purucker had bought the Tākaka business in 2003. Huebler was employed as a bookkeeper and, subsequently, an investment adviser.
The women became close friends but for six years Purucker did not know her money was being misappropriated until the discovery in 2018, which led to a police investigation and ultimately Huebler’s conviction and imprisonment.
Huebler was recently released on parole, 18 months into a four-year sentence (taking into account time spent in custody on remand before sentencing), but not before Purucker had filed the civil case in the High Court aimed at getting her money back.
Purucker sought more than $800,000 in damages and compensation for what the court heard during a week-long trial in March was an “egregious breach of trust”.
The fraud case centred on a dispute over the amount Purucker sought to have returned as part of the plea arrangement in the criminal matter, and a second sum of $102,416 around Purucker’s claim that she was tricked into providing a sham loan to Iris Huebler.
Huebler was authorised to withdraw $100,000 of Purucker’s money as a loan but used her authority to direct the funds to the account of a third-party account to acquire services for her own benefit.
“There is no doubt she was enriched,” Justice Andru Isac said.
The High Court found that Huebler’s convictions for the theft were conclusive evidence that she was guilty of defrauding Purucker of $700,000 and that Purucker had also established to the requisite standard, that theft of the remaining $168,959.24 had occurred.
Purucker also sought to recover misappropriated funds she claimed were directly received by Rainer Huebler, from whom Iris Huebler claimed to have separated in late 2018.
Purucker’s lawyer, Joshua Pietras, told NZME that the decision was a complete vindication of her.
He said the court had awarded compensation for egregious conduct.
“Exemplary damages are extremely rare and it’s clear the judge felt that giving all her money back was not enough, something further was needed (as punishment).”
Pietras said a central feature of the case was the efforts made by Iris Huebler in particular to prevent Purucker from ever seeing a cent.
Soon after she reported the suspected fraud to the police in October 2018, she filed civil proceedings and obtained an interim charging order against Iris Huebler’s share in the family home in Golden Bay.
The Hueblers then drove to a bank, closed their two joint accounts and opened two accounts in Rainer Huebler’s name.
A note pinned to the wall of Alexandra Purucker's home in Golden Bay. Photo / Tracy Neal
On the same day, they prepared a handwritten agreement at a lawyer’s office confirming that they had agreed to separate.
A typed document, “Living Arrangement between Iris and Rainer Huebler after separation on 16 November 2018″, said they agreed to live in different areas of the marital property in Golden Bay.
Justice Isac said there was no evidence that the defendants had taken steps to dissolve their marriage and that their period of cohabitation in the family home only ended when Iris Huebler was remanded in custody in December 2021.
He said despite their claim they had separated, the evidence “strongly suggests” that the defendants have continued to live their lives as though they remained in a marital relationship.
Justice Isac was in the end satisfied that Rainer Huebler was jointly and severally liable to Purucker for funds deposited into the defendants’ joint bank account and was also liable to Purucker for the proceeds of cheques he cashed.
The purported separation and division of assets were “clearly linked” to the knowledge of the risk that Iris Huebler’s fraud presented to their joint assets.
“The dispositions pleaded by the plaintiff and the separation agreement were intended by the defendants to provide a protection against Ms Purucker’s claim,” Justice Isac said.
Huebler maintained that none of Purucker’s funds had been stolen, rather, the money had all been returned and the reason it was “missing” was because of Purucker’s “lavish spending on overseas travel and improvements to her home”.
Justice Isac said Huebler’s claim she had repaid all of Purucker’s money was “breathtakingly incredible” and also inconsistent with her original claims captured in an audio recording played in evidence at trial, that internet hackers were responsible for stealing Purucker’s funds.
Neither was there any credible evidence to support this.
Justice Isac was also satisfied that Huebler’s ability to gain access to a further $102,416.66 of Purucker’s money as a loan was achieved by deceit, and that Purucker had been misled about the purpose of the loan.
“In conclusion, Ms Purucker has established on the balance of probabilities that Ms Huebler has unlawfully obtained $868,954.24 of her funds, and these funds have not been repaid.”
Efforts have been made to reach the Hueblers for comment, directly and through Rainer Huebler’s lawyer.
Tracy Neal is a Nelson-based Open Justice reporter at NZME. She was previously RNZ’s regional reporter in Nelson-Marlborough and has covered general news, including court and local government for the Nelson Mail.
