A woman found to owe almost $400,000 to her former boss in Australia has launched a real estate career in New Zealand under a new name.
The New South Wales Supreme Court found bookkeeper Nina Carrington owed her ex-employer about A$372,000 after she transferred money from the business to her own accounts between 2008 and 2011.
Her former boss, Queensland dermatologist Ken Gudmundsen, said he hired private investigators to track her to Nelson, where she has been working as a licensed real estate salesperson under the name Carolina Wiseman.
Wiseman, 58, was Summit Real Estate's top salesperson in September and is described by her Nelson branch manager as "making leaps in the pursuit of greatness".
But her past across the Ditch has caught up with her and a New Zealand judge this month declared her bankrupt at Gudmundsen's request.
Insolvency documents list Carolina Isabelle Wiseman as one of Nina Carrington's aliases and recorded her occupation as a real estate agent.
Carrington attempted to fight the bankruptcy and told Associate Judge John Matthews that the Australian judgment was a miscarriage of justice.
However, she did not give evidence in the Australian case, where Gudmundsen alleged she misappropriated A$490,000 from him when working at his skin clinic in the small town of Lismore.
Justice James Stevenson in his 2012 decision said Carrington's behaviour, on the face of it, was "highly irregular".
It involved an employee of a medical practice "transferring a little under half a million dollars from her employer's account to her own, over a period of some two years", he said.
The Australian judge accepted that Carrington made payments to Gudmundsen's creditors for which she was entitled to reimbursement.
However, he also said she made "unauthorised payments which were masked as authorised payments".
Apart from payments for expenses, which included wages, stationery and kitchen items, Justice Williams said Gudmundsen was entitled to compensation for money Carrington transferred from the business accounts to her own.
He entered judgment in favour of the dermatologist for A$371,677.46.
Gudmundsen, who said he met Carrington at a "new-age" church, this week described the incident as a nightmare.
"It was pretty horrible, we almost went bankrupt because of her diddling of the books and all the bank accounts. It's put me back several years in terms of being able to pay off my home."
He said that Carrington had manipulated him and "just about ruined" his life.
Wiseman did not deny she was Carrington when asked about whether she was using a different name.
She did not, however, want to discuss her case and has not yet responded to emailed questions yesterday.
Summit Real Estate director, Allister Nalder, did not return calls.