Judge doesn't mince words with ham-fisted meat thief

Elyse Wilson arranged for more than $1000 of meat to be delivered to a central Dunedin bar and met the driver at the drop-off. Photo / 123rf

An Otago woman's rare audacity, ripping off her employer in a series of ham-fisted thefts, has led her to being sentenced to home detention.

Elyse Elizabeth Wilson, 34, of Warrington, appeared in the Dunedin District Court yesterday after pleading guilty to theft in a special relationship.

She applied for a discharge without conviction in March, citing possible problems securing jobs in the future, but was knocked back by Judge Michael Turner.

He dismissed the application as speculative and stressed the court should not hide relevant information from future employers.

Wilson had been employed by a catering company for four years when the culinary swindle started.

Her role involved taking orders, entering records into the computer system, generating invoices and arranging deliveries to customers.

On August 6 last year, the court heard, she arranged for 40kg of meat — worth more than $1000 — to be delivered to a central Dunedin bar.

She met the driver at the venue and helped unload the goods.

But the meat never made it inside the premises.

Wilson simply loaded it into her car and took it away.

A week later, she repeated the ruse at the same location with a haul worth nearly $7000.

Her greed prompted her downfall.

Minutes after the truck had left, Wilson called the driver to inform them she was one carton short, so he returned to drop it off.

When he got there, he saw the defendant carrying the meat from the back of the bar to her car across the road, the court heard.

On September 17, the company called police.

Officers found six large slabs of meat worth $600 in Wilson's car.

She admitted stealing more than $14,500 of meat in total, saying she had done it to help family and friends and claiming she had not profited from the crimes.

Judge Turner said he found that explanation "difficult to accept" given the scale of the theft.

Counsel Deborah Henderson said that Wilson had since found fulltime employment, which was guaranteed until April next year, and had saved $800 to repay her former employer.

She was sentenced to six months' home detention and ordered to repay the remaining $13,780 at $100 a week.