Sisters jailed for letterbox cheque raids

Three sisters, one of them a well-known Auckland drug campaigner, are today beginning lengthy prison terms for fraud totalling hundreds of thousands of dollars.

For some 15 months from March 2005, Elaine Patricia Ngamu, Karen Rowena Ngamu and Georgina Rosemary Ryder were at the centre of an organised gang that raided mailboxes across Auckland.

The group stole cheques from mail, which they altered to pay into other bank accounts, all the while recruiting other participants to their enterprise.

When the cheques cleared, they withdrew the money from the accounts.

By June 2006, a total of 39 cheques worth $671,154 had been stolen and reused, resulting in a loss to five banks of more than $420,000.

The sisters appeared for sentencing in the Auckland District Court yesterday on 39 counts of dishonestly using a document, having been found guilty at trial in May.

Elaine Ngamu, 50, of Beach Haven, is a North Shore drug campaigner who has worked with Maori and others affected by methamphetamine.

But she also has a criminal record dating from the early 1970s, and has amassed more than 230 dishonesty offences. She was sentenced to three and a half years in prison in 1998 for her part in a similar scam.

Despite having achieved "some huge things" in the community, Judge Roderick Joyce, QC, said, there was a "Jekyll and Hyde" aspect to Ngamu, as evidenced by her "predilection for offences of dishonesty".

Judge Joyce sentenced Ngamu to five years in prison, but stopped short of imposing a minimum non-parole period on account of her community action.

Medical problems - which include hypertension, high cholesterol and vertigo - were not sufficient to earn Karen Ngamu, of New Lynn, home detention.

Despite being a "successful" mother and involved in community groups, a refusal to admit guilt - coupled with 37 previous dishonesty convictions - saw her sentenced to four years and nine months.

Georgina Ryder - who has 18 previous dishonesty convictions - also received four years and nine months in prison.

Judge Joyce said Ryder, 44, had recovered from a P addiction and was a keen netball player who had become "one of the best two-point shooters in New Zealand".

Also appearing with the sisters for sentencing were: Jack Faamoana Rasmussen, of Sunnynook, who was sentenced to four years and nine months on 39 counts of dishonestly using a document; Ronald Kerehama Richards, 29, of Birkdale, sentenced to three years and nine months on a total of 27 counts; and Donna Teariki Paul, 54, Te Puke, jailed for two years, nine months on 22 counts.