Employee jailed for stealing $370k from school

A woman who created fake invoices and swapped account numbers to steal $370,000 from a north Waikato primary school has been sentenced to one month imprisonment for every $10,000 she stole.

Tu¯ a¯ kau woman, Janine Anderson, 51, was sentenced to 37 months imprisonment at Manukau District Court on Thursday for charges relating to the theft of $370,385 in funds over eight years from Harrisville Primary School.

Reading his victim impact statement to the court, the school’s current principal Jonathan Salisbury said he discovered something was wrong shortly after taking the role in October 2017.

‘‘The school was in a very poor financial situation and was struggling... and barely had enough money to cover staff holiday pay,’’ he said.

‘‘In early 2018 I received an overdue invoice which I knew had already been paid.’’

Over the next few months, staff members, with the help of a forensic account, worked to uncover the ‘‘elaborate fraud,’’ orchestrated by Anderson, all while she was still employed at the school.

‘‘We had to behave as if nothing was amiss,’’ he said.

The investigation revealed that from 2011 Anderson swapped account numbers, forged invoices and diverted funds in a total of over 400 transactions. The amount stolen would grow with time, starting in with $4721 in 2011, increasing each year to a peak of $129,986 in 2017.

In 2018, she also stole $30,901 but was arrested and charged in May that year. She had been employed by the school for nine years before the start of the offending. Salisbury said the school’s community felt ‘‘betrayed and hurt’’ when the extent of the theft was revealed.

‘‘The school community is in shock that she stole from our children.’’

Former principal Kris Burden said neither she nor the school’s financial auditors suspected foul play, during those eight years.

‘‘The school’s accountants and auditors were always positive, the school met its annual budget... Janine and I prepared reports prior to auditors visits.’’

Burden said the revelation shattered her professional confidence and left her ‘‘totally heartbroken.’’

‘‘It’s almost like grief... I had a feeling of helplessness and sorrow.’’

But Judge Sanjay Patel said that she had nothing to be ashamed of.

‘‘I get the overwhelming sense that... [you] struggle with the question of what else could have been done, how did this escape detection? You ought not to feel like that, you did nothing wrong.’’

Anderson’s defence counsel Edith Te Whata told the court, her client was in the throes of methamphetamine addiction at the time of the offending, that she had taken part in restorative justice and expressed remorse for her actions.

But crown prosecutor Yasmin Olsen stated that malicious text messages from Anderson to a member of school staff during the court proceeding demonstrated that any remorse she had shown was not genuine.