Jail for bank boss who stole $200k from accounts

Vanessa Adams was sentenced to prison at Whangarei District Court yesterday. Photo / Northern Advocate

Former bank manager Vanessa Adams' family and friends sobbed openly in court as she was sent to prison for stealing more than $200,000 from customers' accounts.

Adams, who worked at the ANZ Bank in central Whangarei, earlier pleaded guilty to 14 charges of theft in a special relationship and one charge of computer crime.

She appeared for sentencing before Judge Keith de Ridder in the Whangarei District Court yesterday.

She stole $210,592 by manipulating the system to get access to customers' accounts between February 2008 and June 2010.

She has repaid $60,000 to the bank and is willing to pay the balance at $10 a week until she finds employment.

Adams spent 17 years with the bank and became the branch manager in 2006 before she was sacked last year.

Judge de Ridder said Adams manipulated the bank's system and used her position as the branch manager to embark upon a crime that police labelled a "money-go-round".

She targeted the elderly and disguised her offending in various ways such as depositing stolen money into another branch or by altering mailing addresses of affected customers to stop them getting their bank statements.

When customers queried irregularities in their accounts, Adams replaced their money and gave them false explanations, Judge de Ridder said.

On two occasions, Adams took cash from accounts and on one occasion, deposited money into her account.

Among the accounts tampered with was a doctor's family trust, which lost $33,000.

The bank has reimbursed the affected customers.

Judge de Ridder said Adams partly blamed her offending on credit card spending.

Adams read a short statement in court and apologised to her whanau and bank colleagues for betraying their trust and for tarnishing her employer's reputation.

Her sister said her family had been devastated by her actions but would support her.

Crown prosecutor Moana Jarman-Taylor said Adams' offending had all the hallmarks of a dishonest crime and submitted a starting point for detention of about three years, nine months.

Defence lawyer Arthur Fairley said Adams and her husband withdrew their superannuation to repay the bank and they had had to sell their house to make amends for her crime. He said Adams led a blameless life before her offending, fully co-operated with investigators and pleaded guilty at the earliest opportunity.

Judge de Ridder said Adams, who was highly regarded, had ample time to stop her offending but continued to abuse the trust of her employer.

An ANZ spokesperson said: "We are pleased with the sentencing. All the customers affected by this former staff member's appalling actions and abuse of trust were reimbursed immediately after the fraud was detected."