Big bill after bad bets
A central city man faces a $13,958 bill after losing his money at Christchurch Casino and then losing his employer’s money as well.
The 39-year-old bar manager, Andrew Richard Coleman, admitted a charge of theft from a St Albans liquor store when he appeared before Judge Paul Kellar in the Christchurch District Court today.
Defence counsel Nicola Hansen said she had some concerns about the way the loss was calculated, but Coleman had said he would repay the money.
“He accepts he has cost the company a lot of money and will repay that amount,” she said.
Judge Kellar remanded Coleman on bail for sentencing on April 27, and asked for a report on his suitability for home detention, but also warned him that was not an indication of what the sentence would be.
Police prosecutor David Rusbatch said Coleman had been promoted to the post of manager at the liquor shop last year.
Twice in early December he returned to the premises after 11pm, when it was closed, and used his personal code to deactivate the alarm before taking bags of cash from the safe.
When he was asked about it, he admitted taking $1300 and a date was agreed for him to leave his job.
However, checks then discovered a $13,958 discrepancy between the cash received at the tills and the amount banked.
Coleman was interviewed and told the police that he had returned to the liquor shop twice after hours, because he was drunk and had lost his money at the casino. He had taken the cash and gone back to the casino intending to win his money back, but both times he had lost all that money as well.
Category: Focus
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