Bar manager guilty of pocketing pokie money

A bar manager has been found guilty of stealing money from pokie machines.

The former manager of a Whangarei bar found guilty of pocketing gaming machine money has been convicted and fined.

Michael William Laiman, 53, denied one charge of theft by a person in a special relationship but was found guilty in the Whangarei District Court this week and fined $1000.

Laiman, manager of Legends Sports Bar, said he used $3433 of proceeds from gaming machines in April last year to pay bills instead of banking it into a Lion Foundation trust account.

Shortly after he used the money, Legends Sports Bar was placed in voluntary liquidation.

A venue agreement was entered into between Lion Foundation and Tasktrain Hotels, the venue operator at Legends in December 2011.

Part of the agreement stated that Laiman must not deduct any money from the gaming machine proceeds which should be banked in the trust account.

An electronic monitoring system showed that $3433 was gaming machine proceeds to be banked for the period April 2-8.

The Lion Foundation advised the Department of Internal Affairs that the money had not been banked as required by April 16.

Laiman's company was placed in voluntary liquidation on April 11.

On May 10, when asked for an explanation by a gambling inspector, Laiman admitted spending the money on pressing bills.

When asked to identify who the payments were made to, he declined to say.