Judge jails Tafolosa Bloomfield for “worst case of embezzlement” [1]
Thursday, October 24, 2013 - 19:14
In sentencing Tafolosa Bloomfield, a former Miss Heilala, to three-years and four-months imprisonment in Hu‘atolitoli Prison today, a Tongan Supreme Court judge said that her deceit was audacious and her embezzlement case was by far the worst of its kind he had encountered in Tonga.
“In 2009 for some reason unexplained she determined to fraudulently exploit her employers trust and over several months embezzled large sums of money,” Mr Justice Charles Cato said in imposing a long deterrent sentence.
Her sentence was backdated to start from August 27, 2013 when she was held for sentencing, after a seven-member jury found her guilty on one count of embezzling $204,033 from September 2009 to March 2010, while working at the Forum Travel Ltd. office in Nuku'alofa.
The judge considered a five years imprisonment sentence but then reduced it to four-years and four-months, and suspended the final year for two-years on a condition that she does not commit any offence when she is released.
He said after hearing from her counsel and accepting that she had demonstrated contrition and acceptance of responsibility for her deceit he considered the partial suspension should be allowed. He also stated that, “Her fall from grace as a woman of some standing formerly in the Tongan community has been very considerable.”
No explanation
Justice Cato said that at a sentencing hearing Bloomfield had made a fulsome apology for her actions and indicated that she had written a letter of apology to her former employer.
“However, notwithstanding, the credit I can give her for this can only be measured. She put the Crown to proof over three-weeks, her former employer Ms Gardiner gave evidence in demanding circumstances for seven days and other colleagues also had to give evidence as she persisted in her denial at trial,” he said. “There has been no offer of restitution and no explanation at all as to where the money went.”
The judge said that it was concerning and aggravating that Bloomfield inveigled at least one young employee into her deception by instructing her to make out false receipts to cover her fraud.
As for the references the judge read from the church and others, he concluded that while Bloomfield was formerly a person of good character, “Several who have spoken of her trustworthiness, have it seems no concept of the extent of the deception she practiced on Forum Travel…
“Her deceit, however, was audacious to say the least, as it was rapacious or avaricious over a period of about nine months in 2009-10.”
Deceit
During that period, the judge said that for some reason unexplained, Bloomfield determined to fraudulently exploit her employer's trust and over several months embezzled large sums of money by manipulating daily ticketing balances, issuing then canceling tickets, taking money or cheques from one customer to apply to the account of another customer to settle issued tickets and then falsely issuing invoices to give the appearance of moneys owed to Forum Travel from various government organizations, church, foreign embassies and other entities and private individuals.
“These accounts were all selected by her and in this period she operated her deception there were many fraudulent acts of some very significant financial deception which accounted to the embezzlement of $204,033.09,” he said.
The judge said it was a fraud that inevitably would be exposed but she managed to get way with her dishonesty because the accounting system did not detect the frauds until one day a deficiency in her daily balance was noticed by the junior staff member.
Worst-case
Justice Cato said he was informed by the Crown Prosecutor ‘Aminiasi Kefu that the embezzlement caused serious financial difficulty for Forum Travel to the extent that the business had to be sold. He said Forum Travel appeared to be a good business, which had operated well and to which Bloomfield had made an obvious contribution for several years until she and her co-accused defrauded it of the significant sum alleged in the indictment.
“This was by Tongan standards very significant embezzling,” he said.
“It saddens me to think that a mother of four children and a wife of a person holding a responsible position in Tonga with all the advantages that this should bring should engage in conduct of this kind,” said Justice Cato, who expressed concern for the position in which Bloomfield had placed her children and her husband. “It is very surprising to me that she seems to have dismissed from her mind the adverse consequences to her family when her fraud would be detected.”
The judge stated that, sadly, embezzlement is prevalent in Tonga. “This case is by far the worst of its kind I have encountered here. The fraud was systematic, frequent and carried on over a lengthy period of a mature person who could only be regarded as a trusted and senior consultant."
He said that breach of trust had always been regarded by the courts as the paramount sentencing consideration in cases of this kind. “Without trust businesses cannot efficiently function and flourish and without viable businesses there will be limited employment and commercial opportunity in Tonga. Embezzlement damages the integrity of business.”
"Mrs Bloomfield's conduct requires a strong deterrent message that embezzlement is a serious crime. I fix a starting point of five years imprisonment taking into account the large amount of money involved none of which has been accounted for, the damage she did to Forum Travel, the extent of her deception and the involvement of others in her fraudulent scheme. I regard this offending and the frequency of it in the upper maximum sentence for a single count being seven years.”
The judge then considered a few mitigating factors, including her own previous lack of convictions, previous good character and her support of various organizations in the Tongan community, as well as her late expression of contrition and acceptance of responsibility, and allowed her eight months reduction for these factors and imposed on her four years and four months imprisonment for embezzlement, he said.
He also allowed a suspension of no more than 12 months of the sentence.