Serial thief Hamish Roy used fuel cards and accounts to steal more than $11k in gas from former Bay of Plenty employers

Hamish Roy's been sentenced for using stolen fuel cards to steal from his former employer.

A man with a serious drug addiction went on a $33,000 crime spree using his former employers' accounts at stores and stolen fuel cards to buy more than $11,000 worth of gas.

Hamish Roy’s “significant spree of dishonesty offending” spanned three months beginning in late 2023.

This month the 47-year-old ended up in Tauranga District Court for sentencing.

According to court documents, Roy used stolen fuel cards to put $6778.93 worth of petrol into containers on the back of his ute at a Z petrol station in Tauranga.

The former Rotorua Forest Haulage and Logistics Limited employee used the two companies' fuel cards on 39 separate occasions, racking up more than $11,000.

On February 13, 2024, he went to NZ Safety Blackwoods in Mount Maunganui and selected a power tool kit to purchase on his former employer’s company account.

When the staff queried his authority to make the purchase, Roy stepped outside, swiping some $100 sunglasses on his way. He then called NZ Safety Blackwoods pretending to be a staff member from former employer Rotorua Forest Haulage, and gave approval.

Roy then went back and was able to buy the $2344 tool kit.

His shoplifting covered a range of incidents from retailers including Bunnings, Farmers, and The Warehouse.

He made attempts to leave the stores without paying; other times he would switch barcodes to fool the self-service checkouts into thinking he was purchasing cheaper items.

He would also make legitimate low-value purchases, but use those receipts to take more expensive items from the store.

He used a Mitre 10 business account to purchase $3598 of goods.

‘Gee, that was pretty rough’

In court last week, lawyer Coby Martell strongly advocated for her client’s remorse and desire to make things right.

She asked for an overall discount of 50% for remorse, guilty plea, addiction, prospects for rehabilitation, and his personal circumstances.

“I’m sure he’s sorry,” said Judge Paul Geoghegan.

“What has to be acknowledged is that Mr Roy ... took advantage of the kindness of a former employer, and then stole from that employer.”

Martell told the judge that Roy had sought to take part in restorative justice, to “front up” to his former employers and apologise.

Restorative justice hadn’t been able to take place, “much to Mr Roy’s disappointment and dismay”, Martell said.

Roy had a “deep sense of shame and embarrassment for how he treated his employers”.

“So he should,” replied Judge Geoghegan.

“Which tells me, Mr Roy, you’re a decent man.”

However, balanced against that was the scale of offending, which hadn’t been a one-off.

“At no point after the first [incident] did you say, ‘Gee, that was pretty rough, I should pull myself up’. I accept that that’s got something to do with your addiction.”

Judge Paul Geoghegan reprimanded a serial thief for taking advantage of a former employer's kindness, and then stealing from them.

Martell pointed to Roy’s desire to pay full reparation, particularly to his former employers, despite being likely to leave prison with nothing but “the shirt on his back”, and a desire to find full-time employment.

Given the “significant sum” owed, Judge Geoghegan limited the reparation to that owing to his former employers.

The judge was saddened to read a report about Roy’s background and the struggles he’d had with addictions and substance abuse that stemmed from childhood.

“You’ve had a difficult time and I acknowledge that ...” Judge Geoghegan said.

Hopes for an end to addiction

Martell asked for the judge to consider a sentence of two years or less, so it could be served as home detention at a residential addiction facility.

“Having just recently completed their intensive in-prison programme, he’s very motivated to continue engaging in that treatment,” Martell said.

The judge adopted a starting point of four years' imprisonment.

He was not prepared to make an additional allowance for remorse, deciding the 20% discount for the guilty plea already accounted for Roy’s remorse.

He made a 10% allowance for his addiction, but also an additional 10% for Roy’s personal circumstances and motivation to engage in rehabilitation.

That resulted in an end sentence of two years and five months imprisonment.

Given the level of reparation, the judge took off a further three months.

The next consideration was whether the judge could bring the sentence down to two years, allowing for the option of home detention.

Given the seriousness of the offending, the judge initially didn’t think this should happen.

However, after reading the pre-sentence report and hearing Martell’s submissions, he said he was persuaded of Roy’s genuine desire for rehabilitation.

“The clear benefit to society is for you to adopt a course which would involve rehabilitation so that upon your release from prison you would be able to gain employment ... and to become a contributing member of the community.”

Roy got a sentence of two years imprisonment and was ordered to pay reparation of just over $11,000 to his former employers, Rotorua Forest Haulage and Lincoln Logistics.

Hannah Bartlett is a Tauranga-based Open Justice reporter at NZME. She previously covered court and local government for the Nelson Mail, and before that was a radio reporter at Newstalk ZB.