A woman who helped skim more than $150,000 from the ice cream company that employed her in Hastings for 10 years has avoided jail by paying back her share.
But in Napier District Court on Wednesday, it was revealed her co-offender has been able only to drip-feed the reparation and is
still looking for a way to clear the debt.
Avoiding jail was 39-year-old Yvette Newman, who defence counsel Roger Phillip said had paid a total of $78,074.91. She was sentenced to five months' home detention and ordered to do 150 hours' community work.
But 30-year-old Aroha Byrne has paid just under $5500 and has been further remanded until March 28 in the hope she will be able to pay the company back.
The two women were appearing for sentence having pleaded guilty late last year to stealing $156,149.82 from Hastings company Rush Munro's. They had been given leeway to pay back the money or go to jail.
The charge represented systematic offending by the pair in their cash-handling roles over about four years, with sums taken ranging from as little as $15 at a time, to several hundred dollars. They misappropriated records to conceal the thefts.
Mr Phillip said Newman had arranged for money through family and commercial lending facilities and, in addition to the reparation, faced the cost of interest as she repaid those who had financed her out of her predicament.
In relation to Byrne, who paid a small lump sum and was continuing payments of $200 per week while seeking through lawyer Eric Forster a sentence involving less than prison and the chance to keep paying, Judge Rea said: "The problem is I'll get all the promises in the world, but the minute you get what you want ... all bets are off."
