Security guard jailed for ATM theft

Glen Robert Cherry accessed the cash safe of an ATM in a supermarket. Photo / File

A security guard who stole $5160 from an ATM he was refilling with cash has been sentenced to nine months in jail.

Glen Robert Cherry, 39, of Cromwell, Otago, had earlier admitted one charge of theft by a person in a special relationship.

On June 29 last year, he was the on-duty security guard responsible for replenishing the cash in an ATM in the foyer of a local supermarket. He accessed the cash safe of the particular machine and stole $5160.

Cherry was sentenced by Judge Michael Crosbie in the Dunedin District Court yesterday when counsel Andy Belcher urged the court to impose the recommended sentence of community detention and community work.

Mr Belcher said it was accepted the offending was serious in nature but a sentence of home detention or imprisonment would be "a step too far".

The offence had not been pre-meditated and Cherry had been conviction-free for 15 years. He could pay reparation only at $10 a week because of his family circumstances. He was remorseful and genuinely ashamed, Mr Belcher said.

But Judge Crosbie said the defendant did not "come to this with clean hands". He had previous convictions for dishonesty, although from some years ago.

Although Cherry claimed to have acted impulsively on his last day of work with the particular company, the judge said he believed the defendant's remorse could be questioned. The money had not been recovered and the defendant had declined to say what he had done with it.

The particular contract had been a key business task for Cherry's employer. It required integrity and honesty from staff to maintain the trust of businesses, employers and banks, the judge said. The defendant's employer had to repay the money. The client had been using the company for only a month and Cherry's actions could mean long-term consequences for the company, Judge Crosbie told Cherry.

He said deterrence was needed to send a message that those handling cash or large amounts of money should know if they offended, they could expect to be dealt with severely by the court.

Given the ease with which Cherry accomplished the theft - he had thought it through, the money was not recovered - a prison sentence starting at 18 months was appropriate, the judge said. He reduced that by half to credit Cherry with pleading guilty, meaning home detention could be considered.

But the fundamental breach of trust meant home detention would "send the wrong signal to the community" and would be "insignificant", Judge Crosbie told Cherry, sentencing him to nine months in jail and ordering him to pay $5160 reparation.