Judge rejects quake connection in $472,000 theft

A judge has rejected a woman’s claim that a massive theft from her employer partly arose from post-quake trauma.

Judge Alistair Garland described the $472,000 thefts by Joanne Christine McGregor as “calculated and deliberate” when he jailed her for three years ten months at her Christchurch District Court sentencing.

He noted that the offending began before the Canterbury quakes, and one theft had occurred on the day of the February quake. On that day, McGregor was at lunch when the quake hit and the PGC building collapsed, killing some of her colleagues.

In his opinion, there was no evidence that post traumatic stress disorder contributed to the offending. “This was a pattern of offending that started before the earthquake and it just continued on,” he said.

He refused name suppression in spite of information that she had suicidal thoughts. “Suicide risk doesn’t give rise to automatic name suppression,” he said, but he added that he expected she would be closely monitored and cared for in prison.

He ordered her to pay reparation of $50,000 which is likely to force her to sell the house owned by her and her partner.

McGregor, 41, was in tears – and so were her partner and supporters – as she was led to the cells to begin her sentence on 10 representative charges of thefts from Perpetual Trustees which took place over about four-and-a-half years.

Friends and colleagues say they feel hurt and betrayed about her claims of providing them with gifts and payments.

Her claims – and a statutory declaration to the Christchurch District Court ahead of her sentencing – drew a strong response from the Crown.

Prosecutor Clare Boshier told Judge Alistair Garland: “These claims are causing hurt, anger, shock, and betrayal from the people she claims she benefitted.”

The Crown had obtained formal statements from some of the people she claimed she gave money to. The claims that she had given funds to Perpetual Trust colleagues had caused them “a great deal of distress”, said Miss Boshier.

She asked the court to disregard the woman’s claim that she had given away half the money she stole to earthquake victims. There was “absolutely no evidence” of that.She had either given no money at all, or significantly over-reported the amounts.

Miss Boshier said the woman claimed she was suffering from post traumatic stress disorder from the Canterbury earthquakes, but a third of the thefts had occurred before the earthquakes.

She pointed out the woman had offered $100,000 as reparations, against a total uninsured loss from the offending of $140,000, but she and her partner had refused to accept any of the four offers that had been made to buy their St Albans house.

McGregor had suggested she stole the money from an “uncaring employer”, but the Crown said other employees did not share that view.

The woman told her defence counsel, Pip Hall QC, in a letter ahead of the sentencing that she was “hugely remorseful” and could not understand why she felt justified in her mind in doing what she did. She said: “I have been undertaking counselling weekly to ensure that I fix myselt and don’t repeat the mistakes of the past and the disappointment and disgrace I have brought on my family and friends.”

Mr Hall said the couple had not sold the house because they believed the amount of equity left would not be enough to make a reasonable reparation payment. She was still offering reparation, but the sum was unclear.

She had suffered from PTSD for many years but it had been untreated until recently. She had significant “suicidal ideation” and imprisonment would be particularly difficult because of her mental disorders including depression and anxiety.

He read a letter from a woman referring to gifts she had received from the defendant for herself and her children. That woman wrote: “I truly believe she just wanted to be liked and the way to do that was to shower people with gifts.”

Mr Hall said the court would never know the extent of the spending. It appeared most of the money disappeared down a black hole – spent on living. He said there was no suggestion that the people she said had received money or gifts from her had known she had got the money illegally.

Judge Alistair Garland noted that $30,000 of the stolen money had been used for the deposit on the woman’s house. The 10 representative charges of theft by a person in a special relationship referred to money taken when she was employed as a trust consultant by Perpetual Trust, managing funds for clients who were mainly elderly or mentally incapable.

The court has suppressed the names of the account holders, but Perpetual’s name is not suppressed.

The judge noted she was undergoing counselling and taking medication. McGregor claimed to have paid money to people affected by the quakes, or refunded some of it. She spent half of it on herself, on clothes, household items, and holidays.

She said she had been angry at Perpetual for the way staff were managed following the earthquakes. Some staff died in the building collapse, and McGregor said she saw her actions as “an act of revenge”.

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