Warehouse Group ex-employee ordered to pay $10,000 for theft unlikely to be fully repaid

A former employee of The Warehouse Group has been ordered to pay $10,000 in restitution after committing a theft that would take him a "lifetime" to repay.

The Hamilton District Court ordered Troiden Timi Ngawaka Jamieson to pay his former employer $100 a week until it reaches a total of $10,000, The New Zealand Herald reported.

The order is much lower than the $95,000 that he owed to his former employer after he hacked into the organisation's computer system in 2023 to commit theft.

But Judge Stephen Clark said it's "going to take a lifetime" if he ordered Jamieson to repay that amount: "It will take him 19 years to repay that at $100 a week," Clark said as quoted by the Herald.

According to the judge, he is "really reluctant" to make an order that will take 19 years.

"In the scheme of things, it's more of a nominal order, around $10,000," he told Jamieson. "The full sum is never, ever going to be repaid but you did end up causing significant damage to The Warehouse Group."

Jamieson's offence

The large sum of money that Jamieson owed stems from his hacking into the internal system of The Market, a subsidiary of The Warehouse Group where he was employed, and stealing $95,000 worth of vouchers.

According to Jamieson, he did it to mess with this former employer and "avenge the unfair treatment" that he experienced while in the organisation, the Herald reported.

In his attempt at revenge, Jamieson accessed The Market's network system and modified the pre-formatted Excel spreadsheet for bulk gift card uploads to create unauthorised coupons. These vouchers were used to place 121 orders for various products, including expensive electronics, that were delivered to Jamieson's home and those of his associates.

According to the report, the total generated value of the coupons was $95,000, where he redeemed $84,663.

Some of the items were recovered by the police at Jamieson's home, but a large amount was found in second-hand stores.

The Warehouse Group said Jamieson owed them over $95,000, including the amount redeemed and the nearly $11,000 paid to a private investigator who looked into the case.

The Warehouse Group wanted all reparations paid, but the court ordered the $10,000 in restitution and sentenced Jamieson to 10 months of home detention.