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Friends and neighbours of the 71-year-old woman who committed fraud totalling $1.14 million say they are shocked to learn of her secret life.
To those who live on Waiheke Island, Joan Roberts appeared to be a quiet old lady who volunteers at the Red Cross on Fridays but
mostly keeps to herself.
She does not lead a flashy life and has no car or phone line. She rents an old bach needing renovations.
However, this week a new side of Roberts was revealed when a jury found her guilty on five fraud charges. She had earlier pleaded guilty to two other charges of using forged documents and has been remanded on bail for sentencing next year.
Many on Waiheke Island - where she has lived for several years - were shocked to learn that the woman from the front page of Thursday's Herald was one of their own.
At the Red Cross store her colleagues were stunned.
They said Roberts had not been in this week as she was on a three-week holiday. It was only when they read the story that the reality of their colleague's guilty pleas sank in.
"Do you think she will go to jail?" asked one of the other volunteers who was filling in for her yesterday.
The Serious Fraud Office prosecuted Roberts after she stole about $300,000 from her former employer, the Aotearoa Mature Employment Service (AMES) - a voluntary organisation set up to assist older people to retrain and re-enter the workforce.
She also used an AMES cheque to obtain a $58,000 bank cheque which went towards the purchase of a house on Waiheke and deceptively obtained loans of $782,000 from three lending institutions.
That money was used to refinance the house and buy a local Hammer Hardware store in 2005.
Her offending occurred between July 2000 and July 2005 while she was the chief executive at AMES.
The hardware store is no longer operating and according to Quotable Value, Roberts is not listed as owning any property on Waiheke.
Instead, she is renting a small place in Palm Beach, where neighbours were shocked to learn of her past.
One said Roberts had been renting there for about a year but mostly kept to herself.
"I hardly know her, I only spoke to her a couple of times when she moved in but she didn't seem to be that friendly."
Asked if she seemed the kind of woman who would fraudulently obtain more than $1 million, he replied: "No, not in a million years".
Despite reports that Roberts, who is believed to have children living in Auckland, had left Waiheke yesterday, the Weekend Herald found her catching a bus to the supermarket to buy a packet of cigarettes.
Asked why she had taken the money, Roberts would only say: "I have got no comment, just leave me alone. I don't want to [talk]."
She then lit a cigarette and waited for the bus to take her home again.
