Alleged thief flees country
A staffer accused of stealing more than $100,000 from Christchurch’s oldest rugby club has fled to the UK, leaving the family company and a $1 million home behind.
The majority of the funds Nicola Anne Flint is accused of taking were destined for the Christchurch Football Club’s (CFC) junior teams. She was in charge of the club’s finances and trust account.
The club filed a police complaint in November after an audit revealed large sums missing from events such as school visits and chocolate fundraisers. It is still uncovering new losses by the day.
The Press understands that allegations made about Flint are subject to an ongoing police investigation, and any potential warrant for her arrest is still weeks away.
It is also understood that authorities have located the 47-year-old south of London.
The English native, her Kiwi husband Andrew Flint and their two teenage children flew there business class after allegations surfaced late last year.
Her husband is a builder and director of Christchurch firm Flint Construction. A Flint Construction van is still parked in the driveway of their Mersey St, St Albans, home. The home had a rateable value of $930,000 in August 2022 and is in the name of a trust, of which the couple are directors.
Flint’s children played rugby for the club, and her husband was a coach of one of its junior teams.
Her alleged fraud was a combination of falsifying invoices before transferring money into her personal account, as well as taking portions of cash from the club’s fundraising events. This included a chocolate fundraiser where $7000 in cash went missing from the profits. She would also allegedly invoice visiting clubs and schools and then put a bank account that she had set up for herself on the invoice.
Not long after being employed three years ago, Flint told the board and members that she had stage four terminal cancer and had been given two years to live. “Everyone felt sorry for her”, CFC board chairman Craig Calder said.
But as time passed, suspicions arose when she began taking large spells of time off work and failed to show up to meetings, with no obvious signs of deterioration in her health.
As the club began investigating its finances, it received a random payment of $5000 cash back into its accounts, deposited via an ATM. This was another red flag.
Flint resigned from the club in October after questions started being asked.
“She was incredibly devious, particularly when questions from the board came through. She denied it the whole way,” the club chairperson said.
Calder said the junior club of more than 550 children was the biggest victim.
“She put in an amazing amount of hours and dedication. But all that time the club was being ripped off.
“The fact of the cancer [that it appeared to be a lie] devastated us.”
To bolster her diagnosis claims, even after resigning from the club, she met with a former colleague to give a handover at the cafeteria of St George’s Hospital, where she claimed she was receiving treatment, Calder said.
After resigning from the club, Flint secured a job as business development manager at Rangi Ruru Girls’ High School.
The school confirmed that she was reference checked and police vetted, but she resigned two weeks after her first day of employment.
The Press understands that Flint resigned after the school became aware of allegations against her.
It is also understood that she claimed the reason for her resignation was that her teenage son had been in a motocross accident and had to be taken to the UK for specialist treatment for his injuries.
Flint was also employed by ANZ and left in 2018, a spokesperson for the bank confirmed.
Flint could not be reached for comment.