Lower Hutt fraudster Anita Faisandier has to surrender herself to police today after losing her appeal against conviction.
But Justice Thomas Gault, delivering the judgment of the Court of Appeal yesterday, reduced her jail term from 3 1/2 to three years.
Faisandier, 45, was jailed in June on 20 counts of fraud
amounting to about $833,000.
She had been found guilty by jury of cheque kiting - depositing a cheque in a bank account and drawing funds before the cheque had been cleared.
The offending was exposed in December 1997 when bank overdrafts of nearly $1 million on her company, Travel Incorporated, were discovered.
Faisandier has been on bail pending the outcome of her appeal.
Justice Gault said Faisandier had appealed on the ground that her sentence was excessive and that more allowance should have been made for the 10 1/2 months she spent on home detention before her trial.
Faisandier was the first person in New Zealand to use an electronic anklet while awaiting trial.
Justice Gault said there was no statutory basis for release on home detention during the remand.
If the time had been spent in custody the full period would have been taken into account, but if on bail, even if the conditions were restrictive, they would not.
He said the court was not convinced home detention should be treated as equivalent to being in custody, but some allowance should be made for restrictions on Faisandier's life while under electronic surveillance.
He said Faisandier had also appealed on the grounds that crown counsel at her trial had commented to the jury that Faisandier had not given evidence.
The judge said there was no clear transcript of what was said.
But it appeared the prosecutor had commented that Faisandier had not produced evidence to support assurances to a Serious Fraud Office investigator that she held money overseas.
He said the court was satisfied there had been no miscarriage of justice, although the prosecutor had gone too far in his remarks to the jury.
- NZPA
