Teenager admits defrauding stepfather

File photo / NZ Herald

A Rotorua teenager has admitted fraudulently buying computer equipment by using her former employer's trade account.

Jade Danielle Thompson, 18, appeared in the Rotorua District Court before Judge Chris McGuire yesterday and pleaded guilty to five fraud charges through her lawyer Nicky Scott.

Between January 26 and February 3, she unlawfully obtained ownership of property on five different occasions. Thompson used her former employee trade account at Warehouse Stationery to buy a Cruz Android wifi tablet and tote bag worth $360, a Cruz tablet and notebook worth $648, a portable hard drive and notebook worth $657, a notebook, portable hard drive and a tablet worth $1497 plus a notebook and a box of pens worth $803 in that time.

Thompson is the victim's stepdaughter and former employee but was not employed by the victim at the time of the offending and was not authorised to access his trade accounts.

According to the police summary of facts, she went to Warehouse Stationery in Central Mall, took items to the counter and used the victim's trade account to purchase them.

When spoken to by police, Thompson said she had been coerced into buying the items for a man who threatened to harm her.

"If you feel leaned-on or threatened all you need to do is find a phone and ring 111," Judge McGuire said.

Thompson had also entered a guilty plea to a charge of burglary at an earlier appearance.

The burglary charge relates to an incident when she was driving her stepfather's car on December 5 with two associates in the car.

She parked the car in the driveway of a Petrie St property while the two associates broke in and took televisions from the house.

Judge McGuire referred Thompson to a restorative justice programme to make peace with her stepfather and other family members and ordered a pre-sentence report before she came back to court for sentencing on May 30.

"You are in serious trouble," Judge McGuire said.