‘Ofa Savieti (45) received a two-year suspended sentence for forgery when she withdrew $3,000 pa’anga from a fruit picker's bank account and used it on herself, in February last year.

Hon. Mr Justice Laki Niu during sentencing on July 12, at the Supreme Court said the accused had pleaded guilty to two counts of forgery and the other on using a forged document. 

"When they are committed by a person in a position of trust like a bank employee who is entrusted to handle the money of the customers, it is more serious," he said.

The Court heard the complainant, a BSP customer, went to the accused with a cheque for around AUD$6,000 the proceeds of his labour as a fruit picker in Australia for many months. “His wife and family who have waited for that money in all those months were full of joy at the prospect of the use of that money, may be to build a house for themselves or to buy a vehicle for their use,” said the judge.

The complainant was told by another customer to come and ask for the accused at the bank because she had handled his own cheque from fruit picking. The complainant therefore went to the accused and she filled in the relevant forms at the bank and opened an account for him and deposited his money on January 24, 2018.

The Court was told, the accused had already on this day contemplated to use that customer's money or part of it for herself because she told the customer that even though the amount of the money was already entered into his account, the cheque needed to be cleared from Australia and that it would take six weeks for that to happen. 

"You lied to him. The money was already in the account because you took $3,000 from it just a week later on February 2, 2018. But you told him that lie so that he would not need to check his account for some six weeks when you would have paid back the $3,000 by then."

The accused was able to withdraw the $3,000 from the customer's account after forging the customer's signature on a withdrawal slip and again on a deposit slip and had the money deposited into her account of an organization in which she was the treasurer and to which she was signatory. 

She withdrew the $3,000 and used it for her own personal purpose. That was despicable, said the judge who pointed out there was no difference in what she did and what other bank employees did in cases where they were sentenced to imprisonment for similar forgeries for their own benefit.

Suspension

However, the judge was informed by the accused’s counsel that she had repaid the $3,000.

“Accepting that you have repaid the money you took and that you have pleaded guilty when you were arraigned, I consider that the appropriate sentence for you is two-years,” he said.

The judge said this was a case of a mature woman but considering that this was her first criminal conviction and that it was unlikely that she would reoffend in future, shown by her willingness to accept her folly and to have shown remorse by pleading guilty to what she had done, he considered her two-year imprisonment sentence be fully suspended for a period of two-years from this day.

Meanwhile, Savieti was ordered to serve 60 hours of community service and must not commit any offence within the next two years.