Fraudster’s trail of deceit
An office administrator defrauded a business while waiting to be sentenced for stealing tens of thousands of dollars from her previous employer.
Victoria Louise Duff, a former casino high roller and gambling addict, was arrested in February, several months after police received a complaint from Christchurch-based steel manufacturing company Silver Frames, alleging she’d siphoned nearly $80,000 from the company’s accounts.
Yesterday afternoon, the 57-year-old appeared in the Christchurch District Court via video link from prison, and pleaded guilty to two representative fraud charges.
Duff worked for Silver Frames as an office administrator for about six months until early November last year, when a family member raised concerns about her criminal history, and the company found 35 suspicious transactions in which money had been diverted into one of her bank accounts.
At the time, she was waiting to be sentenced for defrauding a Christchurch plastering business of $90,000. That offending happened over several months, shortly before she was employed by Steel Frames, and while the owner was distracted caring for his dying father.
At the conclusion of yesterday’s court hearing, Duff was remanded in custody, and scheduled for sentencing for both frauds on August 21.
Silver Frames owner Gary Knofflock previously told The Press that Duff never gave any hint of the trouble she was in over her defrauding the plastering business. She always presented well, and seemed good at what she did.
He said Duff tried to hide the fraud by referencing creditors’ names on payments she’d made to herself.
“She’s just got no scruples whatsoever. She’s just scum. You don’t get much lower.”
When The Press met Duff at her home in October last year for an arranged interview about her defrauding the plastering business, she said: “I deserve all that is coming my way.” That same day, she diverted $1746.5 from Silver Frames into one of her bank accounts.
The plastering business’ owner previously said that Duff’s offending had caused him immense stress and placed huge financial strain on him and his partner. “The worst thing that came out of this was that because she had taken all of my money, I had to work as much as possible to try and survive financially, and then I was not able to spend the time that I wanted with my Dad.
“This is what has mentally destroyed me more than anything else. She is a f ...... menace.”
Last year, The Press revealed that Duff’s lies and deceit spanned decades, none of which could be found online before she was employed by the two Christchurch businesses she defrauded.
A former bankrupt, her criminal record includes more than a dozen fraud convictions dating back to 1994.
In 2007, she was sentenced to five years’ imprisonment after she stole well over $100,000 from three businesses, one of which was forced to liquidate.
“She’s a nasty, lying, thieving shit,” a relative, who asked not to be named, said previously.
Police have also fielded a complaint from Duff’s brother, Troy Duff, alleging that she defrauded his trucking business of hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Heavy Transport Mechanical Solutions 2009 Ltd (HTMS) was forced into liquidation in 2021, owing the Inland Revenue Department (IRD) $1.59 million in unpaid taxes and penalties.
Troy previously said he was shocked when he learned the IRD hadn’t been paid. His sister was in charge of the business’ accounts at the time, he said.
“I was f ...... dumbfounded. I rang my sister Vicky and asked her what was going on. She hung up, disconnected the phone, and I’ve never spoken to her from that day to this.”
An October liquidator’s report said that analysis of HTMS’ financial records showed
significant payments where the business purpose and benefit to the company was not clear”.
In an email in late March addressing Troy’s fraud complaint, Detective Sergeant Mike Freeman, the officer in charge of Canterbury police’s fraud squad, said “this matter rests with MBIE and IRD”.
Police would only become involved if required as part of any MBIE investigation, Freeman told Troy’s accountant.
“It would be my view that if evidential sufficiency is identified on your matters, a prosecution should commence, but that will be MBIE’s call.”
In 2019, Duff and her partner, Linda Sharpe, set up Willow Transport, a road freight transport service, which leased trucks from HTMS. In August, it was forced into liquidation by the IRD, owing creditors $600,000. Sharpe ceased being a director and shareholder of the business at the end of 2022.
Last year, Duff questioned why The Press planned to report details of her decades-long criminal history.
“You seem adamant to ignore the ‘Clean Slate Act’, regarding offending in New Zealand, and are dredging up a past that I have already paid the price for by being in jail,” she said. “For whose benefit are you doing this?”
However, the Clean Slate Act, which conceals a person’s criminal history if they haven’t been convicted of an offence in seven years, applies to people who haven’t served a prison sentence.
Duff was a VIP/high roller at Christchurch Casino, where she is thought to have lost hundreds of thousands of dollars playing the pokies until she was banned in March last year. Before she was taken into custody in February, she lived on the outskirts of Christchurch in a $1.4m property, which she owns jointly with her partner and brother.
Duff was adjudged bankrupt in 2004, insolvency records show.