Accounts embezzler jailed [1]
Friday, September 2, 2022 - 09:55
Sione Uaisele Fifita (30) was sentenced to three-years 10-months imprisonment for numerous counts, that included forgery and embezzlement of $29,803 from his employer in separate cases.
Hon. Justice P. Tupou KC sentenced him on 26 August at the Supreme Court in Nuku’alofa.
On 21 June, he pleaded guilty to one count of forgey and another for knowingly dealing with forged documents.
He forged a reference letter purporting to have been written from his employer at Anicent Tonga, which he provided to his probation officer for his pre-sentence report in a drugs conviction case, on 12 May, 2021.
He was later sentenced to six-months imprisonment fully suspended for the drugs offence.
The judge said, in addition to his role as an accountant at Ancient Tonga, the defendant was also responsible for the accounts at Lava Cafe in Tofoa, which are both owned by members of the same family.
An employee at the cafe, Ms Taufa would undertake a cash count of all monies received, prepare a cash summary to record the daily cash count, enter it into a spreadsheet on her computer and then take the cash and cash summary to the defendant at Ancient Tonga.
Together, they would reconcile Ms Taufa's cash summary against the cash collected, before the defendant issued a receipt for the amount collected. The defendant would then bank the funds and then record all bank deposits by entering each banking transaction in the deposit book, she said.
"Unknown to Ms Taufa, from 1 July to 12 October 2021, he pocketed a portion of those funds and issued false receipts to reflect the reduced amount and banked only that amount. Those false receipts were kept at the company office.”
On 13 October 2021, the complainant noticed discrepancies in the receipts, deposit book and cash summaries. She confronted the defendant, and he suggested errors in the calculations made."
The complainant engaged an auditor who confirmed that a total of $29,803.20 that should have been banked by the defendant was missing. Another count related to a cash cheque for the amount of $300 belonging to the company, said the judge.
Breach of trust
The Crown submitted that the defendant was in a position of trust with his employer, which he had grossly breached that trust.
"The complainants in both cases told the Crown that they were disappointed that the defendant breached their trust and the business had suffered as a result of the embezzling of funds by him. None of the funds had been paid back and the defendant has not apologized to them for his actions.
“In addititon, they are finding it difficult to trust anyone with their accounts and they are personally taking on that responsibility, which means more hours of work for them. They say that the businesses have not recovered from the offending of the accused."
The judge then sentenced him to a total head sentence of 40-months imprisonment.
She also activated his six-months suspended sentence, making a total aggregate sentence of 46 months (three years and 10-months) imprisonment.
However, she considered that the defendant is likely to take the opportunity offered by a partially suspended sentence to rehabilitate himself, as said it appeared that prior to his first offence in 2020, he lived a crime free life.
"Further, his cooperation with the authorities, early guilty pleas on the instant indictments and his expression of remorse to the Probation Officer shows some degree of taking responsibility for his offending and the advantage he dishonestly gained from his forged reference has now been removed."
The final-18 months of his three-years and 10-months sentence was then suspended for two-years, on conditions.