KEY POINTS:
The general manager of a Christchurch firm headed for Brisbane on a one-way air ticket with more than $50,000 of company money he had siphoned into his bank account or taken by selling company equipment at a garage sale.
He gambled the money away before he returned to New Zealand a month later.
He is now in custody awaiting sentencing on May 2, after admitting three charges before Judge Tony Couch in the Christchurch District Court today.
The 47-year-old man has been granted interim name suppression to protect his family - his father died a fortnight ago - and to protect the company's interests.
The company's name was also suppressed. Defence counsel Elizabeth Bulger said it was a small industry and her client was readily identifiable with it and the company.
Police accepted that both suppression orders could be imposed until the sentencing.
The man admitted obtaining more than $50,000 from the company by deception, stealing a computer, printer, and software programmes worth $3000, and unlawfully taking the company car.
Judge Couch was told he had been general manager of the company for a year.
When clients were sent invoices, there was a line at the bottom giving details so that they could pay the account by internet banking. The man changed this to show his own account.
If clients did not bank over the internet, they were encouraged to pay him by cash or cheque.
Ten customers did make payments directly to him by all these methods totalling $56,339.
Before his departure for Brisbane with a one-way ticket on January 24, the man withdrew large sums from his bank account.
He also put the company car he was allowed to use, and other company property, into a secure unit which he leased for a month and did not tell the company directors about it. They reported the car stolen.
He sold $3000 of company property from his home in January and because it was a garage sale the property cannot be traced and recovered.
While he was in Australia he contacted the Christchurch police and returned to New Zealand on February 18.
He said that all the money he had taken was gone. He had spent it on gambling and day-to-day living expenses.
Judge Couch was told the man did have previous convictions.
He asked for a pre-sentence report, including a report on the man's suitability for home detention.
He also asked for a reparation report on the $59,000 the man took. Miss Bulger said the reparation figure was not in dispute but her client had no ability to pay at present.
- NZPA
