Litia Vuniduvu pictured leaving the Auckland District Court. She appealed her conviction on two grounds, but was unsuccessful. Photo / Sam Hurley
Litia Vuniduvu pictured leaving the Auckland District Court. She appealed her conviction on two grounds, but was unsuccessful. Photo / Sam Hurley
The lover of a former senior Ports of Auckland manager who stole more than $368,000, and who offered a tearful admission of guilt at sentencing, has failed in her bid to have her conviction thrown out.
Her co-accused, and lover, Paul Wayne Bainbridge, carried out an elaborate and lengthy fake invoice scheme over three years totalling $368,842.50 from the Auckland Council-owned company.
Bainbridge, then 54, was sentenced to three years and one months' jail but was released on parole in June 2019 after having served his minimum non-parole period of half his sentence.
At her sentencing hearing, Vuniduvu gave a lengthy and tearful statement to the court outlining how she was a recovered alcoholic and had reflected on the guilty verdict while in custody, stating "I have come to full acceptance of it."
However, she had since gone on to unsuccessfully appealing her conviction on two grounds in July this year telling the court that there had been a miscarriage of justice, and "the jury verdict was unreasonable".
She submitted the miscarriage of justice was threefold; claiming the crown charged her as principal only then to a party to the offending, meaning the question trial and summing up did not adequately identify what was required to prove the charge, inadequate pre-trial disclosure and including immigration and taxation evidence that was "unfairly prejudicial" to her.
She labelled the jury's verdict as "unreasonable" as there was insufficient evidence.
The court dismissed that claim as "it is plain that, at trial, the charge notice, the question trail, the parties' closings, and the Judge's summing-up all addressed her party liability in the alternative", and that the "jury clearly did not accept" the defence case.
Paul Bainbridge former manager at Ports of Auckland who jointly offended with his lover, Litia Vuniduvu in stealing more than $300,000 from the company. Photo / File
She also appeared to counteract her evidence given at trial where she admitted using the invoices, stating she did the work and was entitled to the money.
In her appeal, Vuniduvu took issue with the word "use" in the charge of using a document.
She submitted Bainbridge had created the invoices without her input and approved them himself, thereby she did not "use" the invoice herself.
However, the court dismissed that, instead finding "that in light of Ms Vuniduvu's admission that she provided details for the invoices to Mr Bainbridge or, at times, created and submitted the invoices herself, the 'use' ingredient of the offending was satisfied".
It also rejected her claim there was insufficient evidence of assistance or encouragement resulting in an "unreasonable jury verdict".
"There was a sufficient evidential foundation upon which the jury could reach its guilty verdicts, and the verdicts were not unreasonable."
Vuniduvu submits her defence was prejudiced because the prosecution omitted to disclose two hard drives uplifted from Bainbridge's computer, a "regrettable oversight".
However when pressed, her defence counsel couldn't point to any document that would have assisted at trial.
As for her submission about the crown producing a letter by Vuniduvu's immigration lawyer to support her work visa ought to have been inadmissible as it had "minimal probative value" and was framed "in an unfairly prejudicial manner incorrectly implying that there was some requirement for [her] to provide information about her work history and income", the court dismissed that claim too, stating it was open to the jury, "as fact-finders, to form their own conclusions".
"We do not accept that the admission of the letter resulted in a miscarriage of justice.
"The Immigration New Zealand letter and Inland Revenue schedule were relevant pieces of evidence and the admission of which not unduly prejudicial."
The offending
The fraud began when the first of several dozens of bogus invoices was sent to Ports of Auckland In December 2013 from Vuniduvu - under the guise of the alias Tia Rokele.
The first invoice claimed a payment for $6400 - it was quickly authorised by Bainbridge and paid into Vuniduvu's ASB account, which had been opened in the name of a third party to avoid limitations imposed by her visa status.
More fake invoices rolled in - all approved by Bainbridge, who later signed off his lover as an approved vendor.
Bainbridge also assured another Ports of Auckland employee at the time that Tia Rokele's services were needed for IT-related research, reviews and consultancy assistance.
Over the next 21 months Bainbridge and Vuniduvu continued their ruse, confident they wouldn't be caught.
The money was spent on clothes, travel and Vuniduvu's business.
More invoices flooded in, finally reaching a total of 50 before the final payment was withheld when the offending was uncovered in an audit by Deloitte.
