Invercargill bar manager stole $88,000, Trust denies offending due to lax practices

The employer of a highly trusted Invercargill bar manager who stole $88,000 worth of cash and cigarettes over a decade has hit back at claims slack practices allowed her to keep offending.

Sandra Maree Waddick, 58, was sentenced in the Invercargill District Court yesterday to 12 months’ home detention after pleading guilty to two charges of theft in a special relationship.

The defendant worked at the Northern Tavern for more than 20 years and was in charge of weekly stocktakes, which she falsified to prevent her theft being detected.

Counsel Keith Owen told the court the Invercargill Licensing Trust (ILT) should have audited the premises more regularly.

“In 10 years, they never thought to do an audit on any of the tobacco stock,” he said.

Sandra Maree Waddick will not have to repay anything she stole from the Invercargill Licensing Trust. Photo / Felicity Dear

“This offending could’ve been stopped in its tracks.”

But ILT chief executive Chris Ramsay told the Otago Daily Times that was “completely incorrect” and the bar had annual audits, which were carried out by a third party.

“We have weekly stock checks, monthly assessments and annual audits, plus unscheduled ‘spot checks’ across each of our businesses.

“This is a case of a trusted employee acting fraudulently to hide their theft,” Ramsay said.

That level of trust was shown in 2021, when the ILT celebrated Waddick’s long service with it.

A Facebook post called her and a group of other longtime employees “rock stars”.

Last June, the ILT investigated discrepancies in the cigarette stock levels at Waddick’s workplace.

When the defendant was questioned about these inconsistencies, she admitted she had been falsifying the figures for almost 10 years.

Following this revelation, Waddick was dismissed and the trust audited other areas of the Northern Tavern.

The investigation found that since May 2019, proceeds from TAB betting books had not been banked.

It was part of the defendant’s duties to deposit this income, which amounted to $40,251.

Waddick told police her offending gradually got worse.

She said it started when she would take a packet of cigarettes and pay for them on pay day.

That escalated to stealing two or three packets a week and ultimately she had taken $48,637 worth of cigarettes since 2014.

She told police she intended to pay for what she had taken but had “dug herself into a hole and she was unsure how to rectify it”, the summary of facts said.

Waddick said she felt “the trust owed her” as she had worked overtime with no extra pay.

She confessed she would spend the stolen cash playing pokies.

Judge Duncan Harvey said if the business had been smaller, Waddick’s offending could have meant it went under.

“What you have done was devastating so far as the tavern is concerned.”

While the offending was initially on the spur of the moment, it was ultimately premeditated, he said.

The ILT told the court it wanted to see “strong sentencing” and reparation of $88,000 was sought.

The trust did not comment on how it felt about the sentence Waddick received.

Judge Harvey said home detention was not a soft sentence, but reparation would be an empty order.

“You have nothing. You are not employed and it may well be very difficult for you to find future employment,” he said.

“With a great deal of reluctance, I have to say to the victim that reparation is not a viable option and no such order is made.”