'To us, the sentence sends a message that crime pays,' says former owners
A former office manager has been sentenced to 11 months of home detention for stealing over $465,000 from a small horticultural business in Whenuapai, Auckland, according to reports.
Crystal Nicole Marie Sinclair, 38, pleaded guilty to theft by a person in a special relationship and accessing a computer for dishonest purposes. These charges carry sentences of up to seven years in prison, The New Zealand Herald reported.
The theft occurred over a 14-month period between 2022 and 2023, during which Sinclair diverted money from her employer, Lyndale Custom Mix Ltd, into several personal accounts.
Sinclair, who was responsible for payroll and bill payments, also padded her paychecks and used the company credit card for personal expenses, including trips to Pak'nSave and a visit to Rainbow's End.
The stolen amount was eventually traced to multiple smaller transfers, mostly between $2,000 and $5,000 each. It was discovered after a supplier called the company's office seeking payment while Sinclair was on a holiday with her then-partner in Dubai.
The supplier sought payment that Lyndale's system showed had been paid, despite not being the case.
The Woolmores, who owned Lyndale, invested over $300,000 of their savings and hired a forensic accountant, who uncovered the extent of Sinclair's deception.
"Crystal did such a good job hiding her theft in our computer system, we couldn't tell what was real and what was fake," Malcolm Woolmore told the Herald.
Prosecutor Stewart King had suggested a reparation figure of $586,000, which would have covered both the theft and the cost of the forensic investigation.
However, the reparation order only required Sinclair to repay $20,150, a fraction of the stolen amount.
The remainder of the debt will be repaid at a rate of $50 per week, an arrangement that Judge Grant Fraser acknowledged would take "many, many lifetimes" to fulfill.
Fraser also ultimately reduced her prison term to less than a year of home detention, noting Sinclair's remorse and efforts toward rehabilitation, including counselling for a gambling addiction.
The judge also agreed that a custodial sentence would not be the best outcome as Sinclair had three children to take care of, and whose father lives overseas.
The Woolmores were critical of the outcome, according to the Herald's report. They felt the sentence was inadequate given the financial and emotional toll the theft had taken on their lives.
"To us, the sentence sends a message that crime pays," Woolmore said, explaining that the damage to their family business and personal lives.
He said it led to the collapse of the company he had built from the ground up, costing him his business, his dream home, and nearly his life savings.
"I have never before been taken advantage of the way Crystal had taken advantage of me," he said. "Her theft has changed my life."
