Friend admits stealing $100k cache

A man has admitted stealing $100,000 worth of gold bullion and cash from a close friend before trying to flee the country.

Indian-born Balbir Balbir, 24, pleaded guilty to stealing the cache, which he managed to pinch from a safety deposit box in a central Auckland bank in 2009.

The details of the case were revealed at a disputed-facts hearing in the Auckland District Court yesterday, where Balbir's lawyer, David Reece, successfully argued his client had stolen a significantly smaller sum than the almost $200,000 the Crown alleged he had.

The victim in the matter, Nasrin Shetty, told the court she and Balbir were good friends and she had turned to him when she was going through a difficult divorce.

Ms Shetty said she had wanted to put her 12 gold bullion coins - 390g in total and valued at about $31,000 - about $200,000 in cash, and a set of valuable bangles in a safe place so her ex-husband could not get at them.

She did not want to hire a bank safe deposit box in her own name because she feared he might be able to access it, so Balbir and her partner, Parag Malik, opened one in their names.

"We knew him [Balbir] very well and we trusted him enough that we thought we could open the box with him," Ms Shetty said.

However, she did not tell him what she was keeping in it.

While she was overseas in Singapore, Balbir contacted her to say his grandmother in India was ill and he had to travel there immediately.

When she returned and checked the safety deposit box, it was empty.

She tried to contact Balbir but his phone was switched off, so she called the police, who intercepted him at Christchurch Airport.

He phoned her in tears after his arrest and said, "I have it all here, I will return it to you," Ms Shetty said.

Balbir claimed he had taken only $69,000 in cash, a figure which Crown prosecutor Peter Dean accepted after a great deal of closed-door discussion with the defence counsel outside of court yesterday.

The Crown agreed that Balbir could be discharged on the theft of the jewellery.

He was remanded on bail until his sentencing on August 30.

- NZPA