Bank worker avoids jail for $262,000 theft

Vivian Tait stole money and falsified documents between May 2008 and January 2010. Photo / File

A Westport bank worker who stole from more than a quarter of a million dollars from her employer has avoided a prison sentence.

Former Westport BNZ Bank second-in-charge Vivian Tait, 50, was sentenced in Westport District Court yesterday to 12 months' home detention over the theft of $262,000.

The court was told she stole money and falsified documents between May 2008 and January 2010, to prop up her failing transport business.

Tait siphoned money from the bank's bulk surplus and covered her trail by making false entries into the cash balancing activity report, instructing other tellers to put money into an account she had opened for herself.

Initially she had replaced the money, but as her business floundered she was unable to pay it back.

At one point she borrowed $130,000 from her mother and placed it temporarily in the vault to foil an external audit.

Defending her Doug Taffs said Tait, with the help of her ex-husband and mother, had paid $91,700 back to the bank already.

Tait accepted she had carried out a premeditated theft over a long period, said Mr Taffs.

She had breached the trust of her employers and colleagues at a small close-knit bank and left a trail of deception and dishonesty, he said.

However, she had not been motivated by greed, rather by despair and a desperate attempt to save her marriage.

It all began when Tait's husband walked out on her, which had left her devastated, bewildered and confused. Her self-esteem plummeted.

In a desperate attempt to reconcile with her husband she proposed to set up a firm together, assisted by her mother who put in $100,000.

Initially Mr Tait had managed their new freight and transport company, but eventually he washed his hands of it and got full-time work elsewhere.

Tait was left to manage the company on top of her full time bank job.

As the company began to slide into insolvency she became determined to prove to herself that it wouldn't fail.

This was when she came up with idea of secretly borrowing from the bank and paying it back when she could.

At first this plan succeeded, but eventually she was unable to repay her debts.

"She was all alone and clung to the one hope of trade improving so she could sell the business at a profit and pay the money back," said Mr Taffs.

She never intended not to pay it back.

Judge Phil Moran said Tait's full confession to her manager and payment of some of her debt were mitigating factors and he did not believe she would steal again.

Sending her to prison would only cause loss of employment and therefore prevent her from paying back more money should the bank seek it.

- NZPA