Rotorua PTA treasurer Giovanna Cleworth sentenced for stealing from St Mary’s Catholic School

The actions of a Rotorua school’s PTA treasurer who stole more than $15,000 over two years while fundraising for the school have been described as “reprehensible and inexcusable” by her victims.

Giovanna Cleworth, also known as Giovanna Fredricksen, appeared in the Rotorua District Court today for sentencing and was sentenced to nine months and two weeks home detention.

Judge Greg Hollister-Jones said Cleworth had 16 previous convictions for dishonestly-related offending, with the last being in 2005.

Giovanna Cleworth, pictured in the Rotorua District Court in July, pleaded guilty on the day her trial was to get under way. Photo / Kelly Makiha

Cleworth was sentenced today after previously pleading guilty to two representative charges of accessing a computer system for dishonest purposes and theft by a person in a special relationship. A representative charge means the offending happened more than once.

The court heard she used her position as the St Mary’s Catholic School Parent Teacher Association treasurer to funnel money into her own bank account using fraudulent transactions.

Large sums of money raised at a school disco and through a school raffle were also never deposited into the school’s account, despite her telling the PTA in meetings she had done so.

The offending

Cleworth was the school’s PTA treasurer from September 2018 to June 2023. It operated on a trust-based system - elected members were trusted to conduct themselves with integrity and no background checks were completed.

Cleworth’s role was to deposit money raised from school events into the PTA bank account. She had complete control over the finances including the PTA’s ANZ Authenticator app account, which was used to set up transactions and pay bills.

Intended as a security measure, co-signatories also had access to the app.

Between December 15, 2020 and January 30 2023, Cleworth made 12 fraudulent transactions from the St Mary’s PTA bank account into her account.

Cleworth would load the account receiving the funds and the name of the recipient, then message co-signatories for their approval to authorise the payment using the application.

This happened 12 times for transactions totalling $7802.85.

Judge Hollister-Jones said the 12 transactions ranged from $148.50 to $1529.50 for recipients given names such as “Mad Butch”, “Hunt4Lun”, “Gmores”, “Juices”, “4sq” and “Paknsav”.

The transactions were approved by co-signatories who thought the funds were paid to legitimate suppliers and not directly into Cleworth’s bank account.

Committee minutes showed Cleworth twice told the PTA she had deposited funds into its account that never appeared, totalling $7442.23 - including from a raffle in October 2021 and funds from a disco in December 2022.

The total unaccounted for was $15,245.08.

Victim speaks out

PTA chairwoman Jenny McGowan-Devery read her victim impact statement to the court, detailing the damage that had been caused by Cleworth’s breach of trust.

McGowan-Devery said the children at the school were the main victims given what they had missed out on, but the offending also caused suffering for teachers and support staff who trusted Cleworth.

“St Mary’s is an integral part of the local community and moreover there are many people who have selflessly donated money to the PTA for the benefit of the children. We know that there are lots of people who have dug deep and given selflessly to the PTA based on their relationships to both the school and the church.

St Mary's Catholic School. Photo / Kelly Makiha

She said members of the PTA had felt “deeply betrayed” by her deceit and theft.

“She sat amongst all of us while we volunteered our time and effort to raise much-needed funds for the school and the children. Her behaviour was reprehensible and inexcusable and it was a complete breach of trust.”

She said it had cast a shadow over the PTA’s tireless efforts but they would persevere.

She asked the court give a “harsher sentence” to protect the reputation of St Mary’s Catholic School and send a strong message about her offending.

“There are no mitigating circumstances and if she hadn’t have been caught we believe Giovanna could have kept on stealing.”

While McGowan-Devery read the statement, Cleworth stood in the dock moving from side to side and shaking her head.

The sentence

Crown prosecutor Laurie McMaster suggested to Judge Greg Hollister-Jones home detention should be imposed, however Cleworth’s lawyer, Casey Treanor, said community detention and supervision would be appropriate.

Treanor said Cleworth pleaded guilty on the day of her trial, but that was because Treanor only became her lawyer two weeks prior - through no fault of Cleworth’s. It was then she was advised not to proceed with the trial.

Treanor highlighted an affidavit given to the court on September 11 which she said showed Cleworth was remorseful. In that letter Cleworth said she regretted her actions every day and wanted to apologise to the school.

Giovanna Cleworth appears for sentencing in the Rotorua District Court. Photo / Kelly Makiha

However, Judge Hollister-Jones noted the affidavit only came after the Crown highlighted in its submissions on September 6 that Cleworth showed no remorse. That assessment was based off a pre-sentence report dated September 2 which said Cleworth minimised her offending and only appeared remorseful about the situation she found herself in.

Judge Hollister-Jones said he accepted the Crown’s submission and didn’t give any discount for remorse.

Treanor also asked for a sentence discount given Cleworth’s background, including her parents separating when she was a teenager and undergoing a marriage break-up in 2021, during the time of the offending.

Judge Hollister-Jones said while her marriage break-up was an explanation for her offending, he said it didn’t reduce her moral culpability.

In summary, Judge Hollister Jones said it was moderately sophisticated offending against a school over a long period stealing hard-earned fundraising money while in a position of trust.

He gave a starting point of 22 months imprisonment but discounted that by 12% for her guilty plea. That gave an end sentence of 19 months imprisonment which he transferred to a sentence of home detention of nine months and two weeks.

She will be subject to six months of post-release conditions and was ordered to pay $15,245 reparation.

Kelly Makiha is a senior journalist who has reported for the Rotorua Daily Post for more than 25 years, covering mainly police, court, human interest and social issues.