By Linny Folau
Pauline Langi aka Pauline Faka’osi (32) is serving 20 months imprisonment for the theft and embezzlement of $155,588 from her employer, STH Ltd a car dealer business.
Lord Chief Justice Bishop sentenced her on the two charges on 4 March in the Supreme Court in Nuku’alofa. She pleaded guilty to both in January.
From the Prosecution’s summary of facts, the complainant Ye Tao, a Chinese man who resides at Fasi-moe-afi, in 2016 started a car dealership business called Sione Tau Havea Limited (STH Ltd) which is co-owned with his business partner, Sione Tau Havea.
In 2023, STH Ltd. recruited the accused to handle and take care of customer payments. Pauline, from Niutoua, was recommended by a friend of theirs, Rossina. In the first week of April 2023, Pauline was engaged to do secretarial work for the business.
After about three months from when Pauline started working, Tao noticed that several customers came in to check the progress of their car payments and found the payment amounts that she was responsible for recording were inconsistent with the actual payment amounts that customers claimed to have paid and with the amounts on receipts issued to the customers. On other occasions customers were never issued a receipt.
In July 2023, Tao checked their company records and noticed the customer payment inconsistencies. The money recorded in their receipts were inconsistent with the funds they had received. Tao informed Sione and they contacted Pauline and she admitted that she had taken money from the company funds, which she said was around $1800.
Tao and Sione then made a written agreement with Pauline that she would repay the amount that she had taken from the company. Two weeks after later, Tao checked the company records again and there was a deficit of $7000. Pauline was again contacted and she admitted that she had taken this money as well. Tao informed Rossina and Sione about what happened.
Rossina volunteered to pay off Pauline' s debt while she continued to work in the company because Pauline needed a job to provide for her family and that she would pay pack Rossina. Pauline continued to be employed by the company while Rossina paid off her debt.
On 2 August 2023, Pauline went to the Bank of the South Pacific (BSP) and withdrew $20,000 using cheque number 352 from the STH Ltd account, which she signed and stated that it was for a refund of deposits for a vehicle.
On 18 August 2023, she again went to BSP and withdrew $20,000 using another cheque from the STH Ltd account, which she signed and stated that it was for a refund. Then on 20 September 2023, Pauline went to BSP and withdrew $29,000 which she signed and stated was for the refund of a vehicle.
On 28 September 2023, Pauline contacted Joe Tupoumalohi and asked him to help her cash a cheque. Joe agreed and they met outside BSP. Pauline gave him the cheque and told him that if he is asked about what the money was for then he should tell the bank it was to refund a vehicle and to give the bank her number to contact.
The court heard that Joe was suspicious of the request but she told him she was in a hurry to do something at the Ministry of Infrastructure. He withdrew the money from the STH account and told the bank what Pauline instructed him to say. Joe called Pauline and they met at a house in Mataika where he handed her the money.
On 5 October, Tao went to the bank to make a deposit and requsted a bank statement and discovered that the company account had a significant deficit and there were four cheque withdrawals he did not know about amounting to $96,000. Tao called Sione and they identified from the bank CCTV that Pauline withdrew the money using several cheques on different dates.
The employers then confronted the Pauline about this and she claimed that she withdrew the money for her brother to take to Vava'u and he would return from with the money in five days. Tao did not trust this explanantion and reported the matter to Police. She was arrested in the investigation.
Jail
The Lord Chief Justice stated that the aggravating features included the fact the accused was in a position of trust as an employee and the level of pre-meditation involved in committing the offences. The only mitigating feature applicable here was that she was a first-time offender and she pleaded guilty at the earliest opportunity.
A victim impact report was also included in the Crown's submissions detailing the financial loss, betrayal of trust, emotional and reputational damage suffered by the employers as a result of her offending.
The Lord Chief Justice stated that she had pleaded guilty to the serious acts of theft and embezzlement, with the total amount involved $155,588.
"You worked as a cashier/finance manager of a small company and very shortly after you had begun your employment you began to help yourself to the firms' funds. Originally, you took $1,800 and your employers who with great consideration allowed you to enter into agreement to repay the money.
“You did not repay the money and two weeks later, a further $7,000 was appropriated by you and again when the matter came to light, your employers gave you another chance. You treated that with complete contempt because on the 2 August 2023, you withdrew $20,000 from the bank, and on the 18 August 2023, you withdrew a further $20,000.
“On 20 September 2023 you withdrew $29,000, and on 28 September 2023 through a third-party you withdrew another $27,000 in total the amount of the four-check withdrawal amounted to $96,000."
At the same time, a pre-sentence report from the Probation Office detailed her upbringing was stable and good, personal history and factors relating to the offence with their recommendation. She is also a mother of five, who had returned to her parents and children but her behaviour had not changed, and she had begun to leave their home again.
The Probation Office concluded their report that she is a high-risk of re-offending given her lack of previous good character, current unemployment and association with the wrong kinds of people. A partly suspended sentence was recommended under conditions, he stated.
The accused was then sentenced to 32 months' imprisonment with the last 12 months suspended for one year on conditions. For the avoidance of doubt, she is currently serving a total of 20 months' imprisonment, ordered the Lord Chief Justice.
