Chandra Reddy has raised $10,000 through his family which he can repay to SkyCity immediately. Photo / File
Chandra Reddy has raised $10,000 through his family which he can repay to SkyCity immediately. Photo / File
The casino dealer who helped steal more than $45,000 from SkyCity by overpaying two of his associates has escaped a prison sentence.
Chandra Reddy, 34, of Mt Roskill, was sentenced in the Auckland District Court this afternoon for his role in the scam after pleading guilty to 16 charges oftheft via a person in a special relationship.
Reddy started working at the casino in April last year and his lawyer, Scott Bricknell, said the offending began when financial pressures started mounting with a new baby on the way and family back home in India needing money.
Reddy's associates, Hirenkumar Amin, 24, and Rajini Kanthreddy Suskandla, 26, knew which hours he worked and which table he would be at.
In court documents read by Judge Neville Dawson, Reddy would arrange for chips with larger denominations, such as $500, to be placed between $5 chips and then hide the richer chips among the smaller ones. He would also overpay his friends.
In total, the theft amounted to $45,670 which took place between December and January of this year before it was uncovered by SkyCity's surveillance team.
Brickell read an apology from Reddy in which he said he'd created an "uncomfortable situation" with SkyCity because he broke the trust.
He called his offending embarrassing and accepted that the consequences were large.
