Stolen items filled two trolleys

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

A woman has admitted using stolen order books to charge nearly $34,000 worth of power tools and other items to a local building company, staff at stores where she shopped unwittingly helping her in the process.

Natasha Miringaorangi, 35, entered her pleas last Friday in Gisborne District Court and was further remanded on bail for sentence on August 25.

According to an agreed summary of facts, the old triplicate style order books Miringaorangi used in the offending were in a vehicle that was stolen last August from someone contracted by Livingstone Building NZ Limited to site manage the remodel of Gisborne’s McDonald restaurant.

The vehicle was recovered about a week later but several items were missing from it.

In October, last year, Miringaorangi went on a month-long spending spree using the stolen order books, focusing on the Gisborne branches of Bunnings and Carters. She wore “high vis” clothing to enhance the deception of being someone working in the building trade and often enlisted the help of shop staff to help her select items. On one occasion at Bunnings, she had so many goods she needed a second trolley, which a staff member pushed to the checkout for her.

Miringaorangi signed the order forms using the same assumed name each time she shopped.

She made six trips to Bunnings between October 1 and October 11, including three times on October 10. On the last of her shopping trips that day, Miringaorangi handed over a photocopy of an order form, which was accepted as legitimate.

The following day she went back to the store with an accomplice. They were both wearing “high-vis’” t-shirts and used an order form signed by two people – the accomplice assuming the name of the contractor from whose vehicle the order books were stolen.

The visits to Carters were on October 7, 18, and 28.  Miringaorangi was successful in getting goods the first two times and was with an unknown accomplice on the second visit.

However, on her last visit to the store she didn’t have an order number. A shop assistant said it was against store policy to sell goods on an account without a number and put the items aside under the assumed name.

All up, Miringaorangi charged $33,891.50 to the Livingstone business accounts getting items that included various power tools, a generator, security cameras, and cleaning products.

When she was eventually arrested, Miringaorangi admitted what she’d done and told police she was “poor”, “needed money”, and was “greedy”.

She pleaded guilty last Friday in Gisborne District Court to a charge of obtaining by deception, which was representative of the eight offences between October 1 and 18.

Miringaorangi also pleaded guilty to three shoplifting offences and a charge of theft (of goods under $500). One of the shoplifting charges related to about $900 worth of goods she got by scamming The Warehouse Gisborne’s self-serve checkout process.