Jail for $151,500 bank fraud,Attempt to get extra $722k ‘half-witted, naive’

A109 Light Utility Helicopter flight with mayor Gisborne City from the air in November 2023.

The BNZ bank claims it lost $151,500 due to a Gisborne woman’s attempts at fraudulent transactions totalling $869,000.

Christina Judith Jamie Lissington, 28, managed to get $147,293 — none of which was recovered — after discovering she could withdraw funds on fraudulent cheques before they were cleared.

The cheques were dishonoured and the loss transferred to the bank.

The banking fault was remedied, leaving Lissington thwarted in her attempts to get a further $722,000.

Sentenced in Gisborne District Court, Lissington was jailed for four-and-a-half years and ordered to make reparation of $13,000.

The reparation is to be paid in weekly instalments of $50 for five years after her release.

Counsel Manaaki Terekia submitted the payment schedule was appropriate and achievable.

Lissington would try to get employment once released but in all likelihood would be on a benefit. Reparation needed to be set at a realistic level or not at all. Judge Warren Cathcart agreed.

Lissington pleaded guilty to 29 charges – the most serious of which were two representative charges of using a document to obtain a pecuniary advantage and a representative one of attempting to use a document.

The other charges included 18 charges of theft (mainly for shoplifting offences involving thousands of dollars of products), obtaining by deception, common assault, escaping custody, driving while forbidden, wilful trespass, and giving false details.

The frauds began when Lissington tenanted a fully furnished flat at which her landlord also stored some personal belongings. Lissington took advantage of her discovery of his old business documents, including a disused company chequebook.

She operated several accounts across multiple banks, transferring fraudulently-obtained funds before they could be repossessed.

Mr Terekia told the court Lissington had a limited previous criminal history. Her life spiralled out of control and the majority of the frauds occurred when she lost an unborn child in 2018.

Judge Cathcart said Lissington’s attempt to get the additional $722,000 was a “half-witted and naïve” one likely to fail from the outset but it reflected her audacious attitude to the fraud.

Given the sheer scale of the offending, imprisonment was inevitable, the only issue being the term of it.

Calculating the final sentence, the judge set a starting point of four years for the lead charges of dishonest document use, applying uplifts totalling 24 months for the other offending, much of which was committed by Lissington while she was on bail. Her remorse was taken into account.

She received a full 25 percent discount (18 months) for her early guilty pleas.

There was six months’ disqualification for the charges of driving while forbidden.

The bank’s reported loss included for fees and account closure procedures.