Former Waikato District Health Board nurse Angelina Reyes defrauded more than $100,000 off her colleagues.
A nurse who scammed more than $100,000 from her colleagues for gambling has paid all the money back.
But, that wasn’t enough to help her escape a conviction.
Angelina Nicole Therese Avisado Reyes, a nurse at Waikato District Health Board at the time of her offending, was so persistent with one victim that he ended up transferring $107,000 to her over six months.
That victim cashed in investments, withdrew savings, and handed over part of his inheritance from a dead grandparent, after Reyes claimed she had tried to commit suicide because she was so stressed.
She spent the money gambling, and during the offending period attended a Taylor Swift concert in Sydney, a Yankees game and Justin Timberlake concert in New York.
However, at her sentencing this week, Judge Denise Clark accepted an affidavit from Reyes in which she stated her partner at the time paid for her New York trip, and she wasn’t gambling when she went to the Taylor Swift concert.
Defence counsel Raewyn Sporle said Reyes had insight into her offending, had self-referred to the Problem Gambling Foundation, and was now at a “no to low” chance of experiencing gambling harm – but it wasn’t enough to convince the judge she should escape a conviction.
“I have looked at this really, really carefully ... but I can’t say that a conviction would be out of all proportion to the gravity of your offending,” Judge Clark told Reyes in the Hamilton District Court as she entered convictions to three charges of obtaining by deception, one of which was representative, after taking $112,000 from her colleagues.
Court documents show the first victim was made aware by her manager in early December 2023 that Reyes’ mother in the Philippines was sick and in hospital.
In March 2024, she was told Reyes’ mother had died. When she later saw Reyes and noticed she was crying, they spoke.
Later that morning, the victim got a message from Reyes saying her mother had died, she had no money, and couldn’t afford a burial plot in the Philippines for her.
After speaking to her husband, the victim agreed to transfer $2000 to Reyes.
Around the end of the month, the second victim saw Reyes and noticed she seemed distracted, and asked if she was all right.
Reyes said her mother in the Philippines was sick.
Over the next couple of weeks, Reyes said her mother had a heart attack, was hospitalised, then discharged, then later readmitted, and then died.
Another time, she said her father had been hospitalised with a “brain problem” and that it was “very serious”.
On April 11, the victim got a Facebook message from Reyes saying she was back home, her father was in hospital, and asked if she could borrow some money but would pay her back on payday.
When asked how much she needed, Reyes said $3000.
In January 2024, Reyes told the third victim her mother was in hospital and needed $10,000 for heart surgery.
She contacted him a week later saying her mother had a heart attack and the cost of the surgery and hospital expenses was now $90,000.
She asked for $35,000.
The victim cashed in some investments and withdrew some savings totalling $36,000.
Reyes promised to pay him back by the end of the year.
On February 11, she advised her boss that her mother had died during surgery and told several other colleagues over the following days.
Immigration records revealed Reyes flew to Sydney overnight on February 23 to attend a Taylor Swift concert. During this time, she’d also falsely claimed two weeks of bereavement leave.
On March 9, Reyes contacted the victim again, saying she needed $1000 that day to pay the funeral director to have her mother’s body released, but said she needed it in e-vouchers, due to sending it to the Philippines.
She was back in touch again on May 6, saying her father now needed surgery and required $6000. The victim was only able to transfer $1000.
The victim inherited more than $60,000 from a deceased grandparent.
Reyes asked for $40,000, which they agreed to transfer.
Three days later, Reyes asked for another $10,000 to travel home to see her sick father.
In July, she contacted the victim again, saying she was in the Philippines and had been hospitalised after trying to commit suicide and had incurred a debt of $30,000.
The victim didn’t have that much and instead transferred her $600 and gave her a $400 pay safe card.
He then cashed up more investments as he wanted to help her and put $18,000 in her account.
However, immigration records showed she was in New York during that time.
On July 23, she called the victim and told him she owed lawyers $100,000, and if she didn’t pay it, her father would go to jail, and she claimed to be suicidal again.
The victim said he didn’t have any money, but Reyes told him to tell his parents he had been scammed out of the money.
However, he declined to do that.
The next day, she video-called the victim and said she had flights booked back to New Zealand but couldn’t leave the country until she paid the $100,000.
She later admitted lying about owing $100,000, and had lost $18,000 gambling.
In total, Reyes siphoned $107,200 from that victim due to the stories she had told him.
When questioned by police, Reyes said she had a “big gambling problem”.
She also admitted lying about her mother’s death, that her father was sick, and that she had attempted suicide so the victim would give her money.
Reyes also confirmed that her mother and father were “alive and well” in the Philippines.
Sporle said her client had fully repaid all her victims.
She’d also referred herself to the Problem Gambling Foundation in November 2024.
In fighting for her client’s Section 106 discharge without conviction, Sporle said there was not a lot more that she could have done.
Reyes had also been in constant contact with the Nursing Council, who stated Reyes might lose her “ability to work, her career, her livelihood, and not be able to work in a field that she has trained for”.
That would impact her ability to pay back her family, who had helped pay back her victims.
“She has taken steps so that nothing like this will happen again, and she is a promising nurse.
“She’s still young, at 34.”
Judge Clark was sympathetic to Reyes’ plight and the good work she’d done in turning her life around.
However, she reminded her that she still had a long journey ahead, as gambling wasn’t an addiction that could be fixed overnight.
“It’s clear that addiction is powerful.
“It leads people into places where they will do things that they would otherwise not do.
“With you, you became a liar and a manipulator.
“You got yourself in such a state that you didn’t stop.”
She said it seemed as though the victims felt a sense of shame, “but they shouldn’t need to”.
Judge Clark found that just a conviction on Reyes’ record would be a satisfactory punishment.
Belinda Feek is an Open Justice reporter based in Waikato. She has worked at NZME for 11 years and has been a journalist for 22.