KEY POINTS:
A lawyer who took $83,700 from an elderly widow's trust account, was jailed for 10 months today.
The sentence was handed down to Leuatea Peseta Iosefa in the Christchurch District Court this morning.
An appeal was immediately signalled to the judge on his decision not to grant home
detention, by defence counsel Richard Raymond.
Judge Kevin Phillips agreed to hear a bail application tomorrow pending the appeal. If crown prosecutor Chris McVeigh opposed bail being granted, he would hear the arguments next week.
The court was told that Iosefa, a barrister in Christchurch for many years, had financial difficulties after the death of his mother, the construction of a family home, and an Inland Revenue bankruptcy notice in 1999. He lost the home in a mortgagee sale and his business was in financial trouble.
Mr Raymond described him as a desperate and proud man in a desperate financial situation, who could not borrow money from his family. He took the money over six months in eight transactions.
Iosefa pleaded guilty last month to a charge of theft by a person required to account.
Mr McVeigh said that any accused person in Iosefa's position would recognise that he had committed a crime and it was "unacceptable and unbelievable" that this matter had gone on for so long and the guilty plea was so late.
He said the crown did not accept Iosefa was remorseful as he had continued his practice both before and after the guilty plea. It was inevitable that he would be struck off by the Law Society, and he was concerned that Iosefa continued to say he had borrowed the funds.
Mr Raymond said Iosefa had not targeted the victim because she was old and vulnerable but it was the only trust account he could use.
He said the offence happened at a low time in Iosefa's life and he acknowledged that it was totally unacceptable. He knew that he would be able to repay the money in short order.
Judge Phillips said that Iosefa's good character - his unstinting community work, his standing in his church and the community, and pro bono work and work as a youth advocate - all disappeared the first time he took money from the account.
He told Iosefa: "You standing as a prisoner in the dock is a sad day for your family, your community, and the legal community."
He said that Iosefa had broken the trust of his victim as well as the community, and the legal professionals who relied on the honesty and faithfulness of lawyers.
"Where did he say, 'I did this. I am sorry'?" the judge asked.
He told Iosefa that his days as a practising lawyer, in his view, were over. He said he had given anxious and careful consideration of the matter and he was firmly of the view that Iosefa should go to prison.
He jailed him for 10 months and ordered him to pay reparation of $31,664 for the interest on the woman's account.
He said delays in Iosefa entering a guilty plea, while he continued practising, had been "a clear manipulation of the court system".
- NZPA
