Restaurant manager to pay back $17,000
A former restaurant manager of Speights Alehouse in Bealey Avenue has been sentenced for causing the business a loss of nearly $17,000 by manipulating points onto customers’ loyalty cards.
Paul Thomas Foster, 38, fiddled the system over three years, and admitted four charges of causing a loss by deception.
Defence counsel Andrew McKenzie said Foster was remorseful and regretted the offending, and had $4000 in cash to pay towards reparation. He was prepared to pay the rest back at $100 a week.
He had a gambling addiction, Mr McKenzie said, but had reliable employment and could pay the reparation.
In the Christchurch District Court, Judge Alistair Garland said over three years Foster manipulated the point system of the loyalty cards by loading and redeeming points from the card holders.
He said Foster’s probation report said he was a medium risk of re-offending, and had a gambling problem, but was a good, reliable worker at his current employment.
The victim impact report said the company had to spend countless hours, and money, using the police and private investigators to catch Foster.
The dishonesty left a stain on the business and the manager’s capacity to trust staff in the future, it said.
Judge Garland sentenced Foster to six months’ community detention with an 8pm to 6am curfew, 200 hours’ community work, and 12 months’ supervision.
He ordered that the reparation of $16,952 be paid.
Category: Focus
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