STOLE NZ$368K FROM PORTS OF AKL WITH LOVER, GETS 3 YEARS
The Fijian woman who jointly stole more than NZ$368,000 (approximately F$526,979.26) from the Ports of Auckland with her lover has been jailed.
Litia Vuniduvu, 39, billed the Ports of Auckland for contract work that was never done with her partner, Paul Bainbridge, between 2013 and 2016. Bainbridge, a former Ports of Auckland manager who oversaw millions of dollars in expenditure, was jailed for his role in the scheme and has since been released on parole. Vuniduvu stood trial in the Auckland District Court in April after pleading not guilty to 50 charges of dishonestly using documents. She was found guilty of each of the charges and stood in the dock, crying and clutching tissues, at sentencing in the North Shore District
Court yesterday morning. The court heard the Fiji-born woman had travelled between Fiji and New Zealand since 2007, but had never been able to obtain residency.
She eventually met and formed a relationship with her co-defendant Paul Bainbridge, who had worked as a manager in the Ports of Auckland’s head office in Mechanics Bay since July 2012. Bainbridge oversaw millions of dollars of Ports of Auckland expenditure and between 2013 and 2016 authorised payments to Vuniduvu for contract work that was never completed.
The 39-year-old received 50 payments totalling $368,842.50 and when the Ports of Auckland began investigating it was discovered the pair had been in a relationship for at least three years and Vuniduvu was using a fake name on the invoices. Judge Down sentenced Vuniduvu to three years’ imprisonment, with no minimum non-parole period, after granting her a 12-month discount for personal mitigating factors.