Former office administrator admits to defrauding employer: reports

The former office administrator of a steel manufacturing business pleaded guilty on Wednesday to defrauding her employer nearly $80,000, according to reports.

Stuff reported the case of Victoria Duff, who appeared in the Christchurch District Court on Wednesday to plead guilty to two representative fraud charges.

Her most recent defrauding was against her employer, Silver Frames, where she stole nearly $80,000 while she worked there for six months until November last year.

According to Stuff's report, Silver Frames found 35 suspicious transactions in which the money had been diverted to a bank account owned by Duff, who tried to hide her offending by referencing creditors' payments she'd made to herself.

Duff's violations came when she was also awaiting sentencing for another fraud case against a former employer, Stuff reported. In that case, she stole $90,000 from a plastering business where she also worked as an office administrator.

According to Stuff, sentencing for Duff's both frauds is set on August 21, with the former employee remanded in custody after she was arrested in February.

Prior fraud cases

The report said Duff is a gambling addict who was reportedly a VIP/high roller at Christchurch Casino. However, she reportedly lost hundreds of thousands of dollars playing in pokies until she was banned in March last year.

Prior to her fraud cases with Silver Frames and the plastering business, Duff was already sentenced to five years of imprisonment in 2007 for stealing over $100,000 from three businesses.

Duff also made a victim out of her brother and his trucking business, where she defrauded hundreds of thousands of dollars from, according to the report.

In an interview with Stuff in October 2023, Duff told the news outlet: "I deserve all that is coming my way."