Karla Wickham narrowly escaped a jail term for credit card fraud. Photo / Boroda
A Rotorua woman who stole the identities of nearly 1500 people and fraudulently used credit card details has been spared a jail term because she has vowed to pay everyone back.
Karla Cherie Wickham, 40, was sentenced to nine and a half months’ home detention after previously pleading guilty to 16 charges of accessing a computer for dishonest purposes.
She appeared before Judge Anna Skellern in the Rotorua District Court on Thursday.
Wickham used her laptop to steal the credit card details from an online system of 1477 people. Over a four-month period she used the cards to buy various items totalling nearly $6000.
Wickham committed the offending while serving another home detention sentence for fraud for her role in a large-scale drug operation busted by police in 2023.
In that case, Wickham was implicated in a drug ring run by kingpin William Macfarlane jnr, who led an importing and dealing syndicate in Rotorua and Tauranga that aimed to make $20 million a year.
The syndicate was involved in the importation and supply of GBL and MDMA and the importation of chemicals used to manufacture methamphetamine.
The case revealed how Macfarlane would use the dark web and pay for the drugs with the cryptocurrency Bitcoin. Many of those implicated allowed their addresses to be used for deliveries.
Wickham was sentenced in November 2023 to 10 and a half months’ home detention for importing GBL and methamphetamine.
For Wickham’s latest offending, she was going to be sent to prison, based on a sentence indication delivered by Judge John Berseng in March 2025.
However, Judge Anna Skellern changed the sentence to one of home detention given Wickham had agreed to pay $3000 reparation immediately and the remainder in instalments.
Judge Skellern said even police prosecutor Luke Kerr agreed home detention was now the best outcome given Wickham was prepared to “put right” the wrong by paying back those who had lost money.
The maximum sentence for the offending is seven years’ imprisonment.
Between January 1 and February 9 last year Wickham used her laptop to obtain credit card details belonging to 1477 people.
Judge Skellern said she took the credit card numbers, expiry dates, CVC numbers, cardholders’ names, residential addresses and email addresses.
She then used those details to place orders for various products and she shared some of the credit card details with others. In total, $5859 was stolen.
Judge Skellern said Judge Bergseng noted in his sentence indication Wickham’s offending was planned and premeditated.
“He [Judge Bergseng] said you knew exactly what you were doing and how to do it despite the fact you were on home detention for fraud-related offending,” Judge Skellern said.
Despite not having any victim impact statements, Judge Skellern noted both she and Judge Bergseng knew from experience there were significant impacts on people when their details were hacked and their identities stolen.
At the time of the sentence indication, Judge Bergseng said a term of imprisonment was the only outcome.
However, Judge Skellern said the position had changed after Wickham’s lawyer, Scott Mills, filed extensive submissions that set out Wickham’s long-term struggles and how Wickham had tried to address those issues.
She did not go into details in open court about Wickham’s struggles.
“That is a real step forward because you have recognised people have suffered loss and you want to put that right ... That is what saves you from going to prison today.”
Judge Wickham said Wickham was genuinely remorseful.
She noted Wickham had the care of her two children and had made significant rehabilitation efforts.
Her pre-sentence report, which recommended a sentence of home detention, said she had developed a concerning pattern of dishonesty over the years.
“The report writer noted drugs and alcohol will be a lifetime risk for you.”
From a starting point of 26 months’ imprisonment, she gave sentence reductions of 10% each for her rehabilitation efforts, personal circumstances and remorse. She gave a further 20% reduction for her guilty plea.
She uplifted the sentence by two months for her relevant criminal record and a further four months for offending while on a home detention sentence.
That gave a final prison sentence of 19 months’ jail, which she turned into a home detention sentence of nine and a half months.
Wickham would be subject to special release conditions for six months after she served her home detention sentence.
Kelly Makiha is a senior journalist who has reported for the Rotorua Daily Post for more than 25 years, covering mainly police, court, human interest and social issues.