Inquiry launched after prosecutors botch sentencing
An investigation is under way into why the criminal history of convicted fraudster never made it in front of a judge, police say.
The Sunday Star-Times last week revealed Lisa Donnelly had appeared for sentence in the Auckland District Court after pleading guilty to stealing $36,000 from a pensioner in her care.
Her full criminal history – which was spread across three aliases and included involvement in a highprofile $2 million fraud in 2004 – was not given to sentencing Judge Christopher Field by a police prosecutor and the matter was raised by Donnelly’s lawyer, Adam Couchman, after the sentencing had already taken place.
Donnelly was given home detention and community work, on the basis she had committed just a few dishonesty offences prior to 1992.
But under the alias Lisa Clement, Donnelly had racked up prison time and more than 40 convictions. She had defrauded the Ministry of Social Development of $1.9m after making fake invoices during her time as a Work and Income employee.
Police confirmed this week not all of Donnelly’s aliases were connected to her Justice Ministry case file as was normal procedure.
Police are now ‘‘actively looking’’ into internal processes to see what ‘‘learnings’’ can be gleaned from the muck-up, a spokeswoman said.
She also confirmed police were ‘‘close’’ to reaching a decision about whether they would appeal the sentence at the High Court.