Money stolen to fund gambling, court told.
A former excavation manager has $115,971 ready to pay back to the firm he ripped off by getting work done in their name, to fund his gambling.
Lindsay Ian Cresswell, 28, had been told to get the money ready ahead of his Christchurch District Court sentencing on three charges – and he did.
It will be paid back to Canterbury Concrete Cutting NZ Ltd (trading as Concut), and Cresswell will do 10 months of home detention at an address in Kaiapoi.
Cresswell had pleaded guilty to three charges of theft by a person in a special relationship.
The court was told that since his guilty pleas in July, Cresswell had raised the reparation money. He had no previous convictions and had made “a positive contribution in other ways”.
Cresswell has now established his own business which employs five people. The home detention sentence will allow him to continue running the business.
Judge Gary MacAskill said that while at Concut he had provided quotes and carried out work for 16 homeowners, without telling the firm. He had sent out invoices using its letterhead, but had used his own bank account to receive payments totalling $191,773.
Contractors were paid from that total, but Cresswell received more than $115,000, which had since been repaid in full. The offending took place in 2013 and 2014.
“This was a moderately sophisticated and sustained course of fraud while you were holding a position of trust,” said the judge.
He noted that Cresswell admitted to the probation officer in his pre-sentence interview that he had stolen the money to fund his gambling habit.
Cresswell provided a letter dated January 2015 from the Christchurch Casino that shows he requested self-exclusion. “I accept that shows that an an early setage you tried to address the underlying cause of your offending,” said the judge.
The offending had involved exploiting the firm’s computer system with procedures that were difficult to detect. It had had a significant impact on the firm and its business interests, said the judge.
He imposed home detention, with an additional six months subject to post-release conditions. Cresswell will have to work as approved by his probation officer, and take any rehabilitation courses as directed.
Category: Focus
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