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A Porirua man has been sentenced for defrauding his boss while on home detention for defrauding his previous workplaces
Andrew Ross, 43, was narrowly granted another home detention sentence instead of prison yesterday
Ross told a pre-sentence report writer he did not remember committing the crimes
When Andrew Ross asked his “high trust” employer if he could work from home to spend time with his bullied teenage daughter, his boss had no idea the real reason for the request was because the “professional conman” was legally confined to his house.
The 43-year-old was yesterday given another home detention sentence by a narrow margin, with Judge Peter Hobbs saying there were protections in place to prevent Ross committing the same offending again while at home.
Ross, known previously as Andi Ross, appeared in the Wellington District Court, having earlier pleaded guilty to accessing a computer system for dishonest purposes and a representative charge of obtaining a pecuniary advantage by deception.
According to the summary of facts, Ross was charged in May 2020, June 2021 and October 2021 with defrauding previous employers. There were three victimised businesses in total.
While on bail for these offences, he began working for an arborist company, Arb Innovations, as an office administrator.
“The defendant did not declare or make known to his potential employer that he was, at the time, on bail for numerous dishonesty charges,” the summary said.
Andrew Ross, also known as Andi Ross, was sentenced in the Wellington District Court today. Photo / Melissa Nightingale
He was then sentenced to 10 months of home detention.
“He applied to work from home during this period, citing a need to homeschool his daughter.”
From mid-2022 to mid-2023, Ross sent seven invoices to clients, having removed the company’s bank account details and replaced them with his own.
“Ross made attempts to cover his digital trail such as deleting the metadata from the documents and voiding the invoices in Xero so they would not generate alerts as unrecovered debts,” the summary said.
In total he diverted $21,647.61 of the company’s money into his own bank account before Arb Innovations discovered what was happening and reported it to police.
In a victim impact statement read out in court by police, the company’s owner said he began his business with intentions it would have “strong internal values”, saying he wanted to be a good employer that valued his staff.
“Andrew Ross actively exploited that.”
He said Ross had told him he wanted to work from home because his teenage daughter was being bullied at school, and wanting to be a good boss, he allowed this.
He said his company had suffered significant reputational damage with clients because of Ross’ offending, and he personally had suffered as well.
“I’ve lost many hours of sleep questioning the people around me, wondering if I can trust them,” he said.
He said the company was previously a “high trust environment”, but now he found himself “second-guessing everything I’m told”.
“Nothing he says can be believed. He is a habitual liar . . . Ihope Andrew Ross doesn’t get the opportunity to do the same thing to another trusting business.”
According to a pre-sentence report, Ross said he did not recall the offending.
In sentencing, Judge Hobbs said aggravating factors included the fact Ross had previous similar offences and committed the current offending while on home detention for the other cases. He said it was planned and premeditated and the amount of money involved was “not insignificant”.
While the “most obvious course of action” was to send Ross to prison, Judge Hobbs said there were “significant personal issues” that needed to be factored in.
He said Ross had moderately severe issues with depressive mood, which he believed was due in part to issues of gender identity, including treatment and surgery received as a result of those gender identity issues.
“I think a sentence of imprisonment for you under those circumstances would be particularly difficult,” Judge Hobbs said.
He also noted treatment and rehabilitation for Ross’ offending would be most effective if he was not imprisoned.
Judge Peter Hobbs chose to allow a home detention sentence 'by a narrow margin'. File photo / Juan Zarama Perini
While there was an “obvious concern” Ross would reoffend while on home detention, Judge Hobbs said there were some protections in place.
“First is that name suppression is not sought and would not be granted. Your offending will therefore be in the public domain and not hidden from any potential employer.”
The second was that Ross would be forbidden from entering any employment without written approval from a probation officer.
Judge Hobbs sentenced Ross to 10 months of home detention, with six months of post-release conditions.
He noted the victims of the previous offending were paid back in full after Ross was made bankrupt and a house was sold to pay his debt. The current victim was paid out by his insurance company.
Melissa Nightingale is a Wellington-based reporter who covers crime, justice and news in the capital. She joined the Herald in 2016 and has worked as a journalist for 10 years.
