Theft will be ‘a blip’ for panelbeater
Panelbeater Ben Thomas wasn’t in court to see his former employee admit the thefts that crippled his newly-acquired business earlier this year.
The sleepless nights are finally over and Thomas says he has moved on.
Exactly how much Clinton Rex Hayman, 32, stole from the man he spent nearly 14 years working for remains unknown
Hayman pleaded guilty in Ha¯wera District Court on Tuesday to one charge of obtains by deception over $1000 and will be sentenced on December 12.
The police summary listed thefts that occurred over many months totalling nearly $6000, but Thomas said it wasn’t the full extent. ‘‘We proved $7500, which we know is not all of it,’’ Thomas said after the court case. ‘‘I have other people’s names and vehicles but I didn’t have time to catch up with those people.’’
Ben and Deb Thomas, who own Ben Thomas Panelbeating in Ha¯ wera, bought a separate Stratford panelbeating business in early 2017 and promoted Hayman, who had worked for them for 12 years, to run it.
But unbeknown to them, Hayman stole from them over the next 17 months.
‘‘The defendant would on occasions create an invoice for the client, pocket a portion of the money, change the invoice and bank the remaining portion of the money to the company,’’ prosecutor sergeant Steve Hickey told the court. ‘‘The defendant would also get clients to pay ‘cash’ whilst getting store workers to carry out the repairs which, unknown to them, were ‘cash’ jobs.’’
Thomas said they were puzzled as to why the business was struggling.
‘‘It was difficult, not your normal sort of ebb and flow of business. The cream, the profit, unbeknown to us, was being stolen off the top,’’ he said.
The couple invested an additional $48,000 from their Ha¯wera business to keep the Stratford enterprise afloat.
‘‘That’s not how much he stole, I’m not saying that, but also the business was not being run very well,’’ he said. ‘‘He watched us keep investing money in so we could protect our business, while he continued to steal.’’
It was a shock to discover the theft. ‘‘It’s a very odd, strange thing to go through, with lots of disappointment,’’ he said. ‘‘You just switch to ‘get on with it’ mode.
‘‘We were pretty quick to start doing what we had to do, find out what was actually happening, what the extent was, start the legal process to deal with Clint and send him on his way.’’
He appointed a manager for his Ha¯wera business and took over the Stratford business himself. It has bounced back and is going really well, he said.
Their other staff and their customers had been very supportive through the whole process.
‘‘We’ve been in business for 28 years and this is the first time we have ever dealt with this.
‘‘You can’t let one person taint your view of everybody else in the world.
‘‘I said to Deb, we will look back and it will be a blip, but at some stage this will impact on him,’’ Thomas said.