Surf life saving boss embezzled $200,000

Surf Life Saving Taranaki is seeking over $200,000 in reparation after a decade of embezzlement and forgery by its former boss Alison Douglas.

Douglas, 65, pleaded guilty in New Plymouth District Court yesterday to 18 charges of fraud, 23 charges of failing to make payments to the Inland Revenue Department, and one of theft, the Taranaki Daily News reported.

An investigation was launched last year after the IRD contacted Surf Life Saving Taranaki about several years of unpaid PAYE payments and penalties totalling $108,000.

That led to the discovery that between 1998 and 2008, Douglas, who had sole responsibility for the organisation's funds as district manager, overpaid herself $198,764.

She also spent a further $6783 in unauthorised domestic and international travel for herself, her son and his partner.

Douglas tried to cover her tracks by producing false audit reports which she claimed had been prepared by a chartered accountancy firm.

But she admitted her misappropriation of the funds when spoken to by police in January this year.

The court was told the organisation sought reparation of $205,548.

Douglas was remanded on bail for sentencing on April 24 her lawyer Pamela Jensen saying that she accepted that a jail sentence was inevitable.

- NZPA