Ex-club supervisor admits theft
A former Christchurch social club supervisor has admitted stealing cash from her workplace and is negotiating repayments.
No sentencing date has been set while the negotiations are ongoing and the amount involved cannot be reported until the figure has been settled, although a guilty plea has been entered in the Christchurch District Court.
If no agreement is reached between the Papanui Club and 64-year-old Christine Mary Black, who is also known as Christine Painter, the case may go to a disputed facts hearing.
The hearing would hear evidence and a judge would decide the amount involved.
Black has admitted the charge of theft by a person in a special relationship in court yesterday. The charge was laid as a ‘‘representative charge’’, indicating thefts occurred more than once.
She had been employed as the supervisor at the club in Bishopdale, where she had responsibility for the club’s cash handling and banking.
Police said the club’s general manager detected that cash was going missing in January and an internal investigation began.
On June 17, Black was seen on internal security footage removing cash from the float safe and placing it in her handbag. Having hidden the cash in her handbag, she then removed it from the premises.
The manager confronted her and she admitted taking the cash.
Black then wrote to the manager admitting the losses to the club, saying she had a gambling addiction, and undertaking to repay the outstanding amount. Some of the money has been repaid already.
Police prosecutor Sergeant Garry Wilson told the judge officers had suggested the club pay to have its accounts forensically examined to determine the exact loss, but the club decided it did not want to add to the amount it had already lost.
He said Black had made a repayment offer and it was thought the club would accept that.
The case has now been remanded, with Black on bail, to a case review hearing on December 12.
Defence counsel Clayton Williams said there had already been ‘‘fruitful discussions’’ and the court would be told at Black’s next appearance whether an agreement had been reached on the amount involved.
Black was club president Tony Baillie’s partner. He stood down from his role in June.