By NAOMI LARKIN
Thieves, burglars and other criminals have been ripped off by a Mt Eden Prison employee who siphoned money from their canteen accounts.
A Corrections Department spokeswoman yesterday said an administration accounts staff member was fired last month after admitting she stole money from inmates' trust accounts.
She said she did not know how much money was taken.
The sacking came after an internal investigation, and the matter had been handed over to the police.
The accounts are administered by prison staff on behalf of inmates whose families deposit money for cigarettes and snacks.
The prisoners do not handle any cash but sign forms authorising money to be taken from their accounts to pay for canteen orders.
An inmate's wife told the Weekend Herald yesterday that the prisoners and their families were annoyed the department had not reimbursed them for the loss.
"They hired her. It's suppose to be a trust account but there's no trust there."
She said her husband's account did not contain a lot of money, but it was difficult for families like hers - where the main income earner was now behind bars - to find extra money and the canteen supplies were vital in keeping prisoners' spirits up.
"It's like gold in there. They also barter with it, like cigarettes for pudding or something like that."
Her husband had to go for two weeks without any supplies.
Mt Eden Prison's manager of operations and development, Brigid Bradley, said the prison would review its procedures.
"It goes without saying this type of behaviour is totally unacceptable and will not be tolerated."
In July last year, Mt Eden's administration manager, Dennis Kake, was convicted of stealing almost $250,000 from prison accounts. Kake, responsible for the jail's support staff and computer operations, created bogus identities in an accounts database to pay for goods and services.
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