A former financial controller who stole more than $180,000 from her employer and the Covid-19 wage subsidy scheme using fake invoices, altered payslips and fraudulent emails has avoided prison after being diagnosed with stage 4 melanoma.
According to a report by Stuff, Rachel Marie Wansbrough, previously known as Rachel Lamberth during the offending, was sentenced to 12 months’ home detention in the Christchurch District Court on Wednesday.
Judge Tony Couch said the offending would normally have resulted in imprisonment because of the serious breach of trust involved.
“In appointing you to those positions… the company placed a great deal of trust in you,” the judge said. “You repeatedly and severely breached that trust,” as quoted by Stuff.
However, the court heard Wansbrough had recently been diagnosed with stage 4 melanoma and faced a “very challenging prognosis” with a possible “short remainder of her life”.
Judge Couch said imprisonment would be “disproportionately severe”, noting she was also the primary caregiver for two teenage children, Stuff has reported.
Wansbrough worked for Isaac Construction as a payroll and debtors officer before being promoted to payroll manager in 2022. Her role gave her access to payroll and debtor systems, which she used to divert company funds into her own bank accounts.
According to the summary of facts, she used multiple tactics, including fake invoices, refund requests, altered pay reports and fraudulent direct credit batches to steal money between April 2021 and July 2024.
In one method, she directed customer refunds into her own personal bank accounts by falsely claiming approvals from the company’s chief financial officer, as reported by Stuff.
“The pay reports provided by the defendant for approval and review did not match the bank direct credit batch loaded into Isaac’s ANZ bank,” the summary said.
“The discrepancy was confirmed when different timestamps were noted on the written pay reports,” it said. “[She] enabled the transactions to proceed. The defendant concealed the thefts by submitting altered pay reports,” as quoted by Stuff.
The court heard Wansbrough stole $56,620 directly from the company and fraudulently obtained another $131,400 from the Ministry for Social Development through fake Covid-19 leave support and wage subsidy applications.
She submitted applications using employee names, dates of birth and IRD numbers while directing payments into three of her own bank accounts, Stuff has reported.
Following her arrest, Wansbrough admitted she had developed a severe gambling addiction.
She told police she had “completely lost control” of her gambling habit and resorted to stealing after she could no longer access loans or finance.
Wansbrough pleaded guilty in February to nine charges of using a document for pecuniary advantage.
In a statement after the guilty pleas, Jeremy Dixon, chief executive of Isaac Construction, said the company was disappointed by the offending.
“It is disappointing that this has occurred. Trust is placed in people in employment and, in this instance, that trust was broken through a conscious and deliberate series of actions by a person in a position of responsibility,” Dixon said, Stuff has quoted.
“Our team responded quickly and professionally once the offending was uncovered, reviewing existing processes and making changes where needed. I would like to thank them for their efforts, as ideally they should never have been put in this position,” as quoted by Stuff.