Selemana Fonua was sentenced to two-years imprisonment after being convicted of theft and false accounting of $21,299 pa’anga from Tanoa Hotel (Tonga) in 2015.

The accused (40) who was in charge of the hotel's payroll was found guilty by Hon Mr Justice Cato after a trial on January 19 this year, at the Supreme Court.

The judge during sentencing on March 29, found that on about 16 occasions between May 22, 2015 and December 3 on the same year, the accused had dishonestly manufactured a false spreadsheet, which included the names of a number of fictitious of “ghost” employees, inflating the wages bill for Tanoa (Tonga).

He said by ghost employees, meant employees who were not entitled to wages during the relevant period.

“I am satisfied that the prisoner did this deliberately so as to receive the inflated amounts, which I found amounted to $21,299."

The judge also agreed with prosecution that her pattern of deceptive conduct, a senior and trusted employee would be of great concern to Tanoa Fiji and was plainly in breach of trust with her employer Tanoa Tonga.

The judge suspended the final six-months of her sentence on the grounds that she had no previous convictions and upon strict conditions.

Meanwhile, a two-year sentence imposed on her second falsification count is to be served concurrently with the theft charge.