The Chief Justice said, in April 2021 the complainant and her mother were organising the wedding of sister, Luana, in Tonga to be held in December 2021. The complainant was in charge of paying for a venue.

The defendant deceived and misused the money sent for her sister's wedding at the Vakaloa Beach Resort. She did this by creating false receipts, setting up a fake e-mail account and also pretending to be owner of the resort. She also misused money to buy pigs for the wedding.

The court heard, it was not until 17 May 2021, that the complainant found out from other Tongan contacts that the defendant did not make any payment to Vakaloa. She tried to contact the defendant. However, the defendant had by then disconnected her phone and deactivated her Facebook account.

In May, the complainant contacted a family friend who is a police officer, and asked him to make a complaint on her behalf. He did so and on 17 June 2021, following a long investigation, Police arrested her in October.

The Crown submitted the aggravating factors was her position of trust, which she abused when she misused the complainant's (her sister's) money and her actions being highly deceptive and dishonest.

Scam

On the other charges relating to a fake car dearler business scam, the defendant pleaded guilty to three counts of obtaining money by false pretenses, on 30 September.

This offending involved different times from 2019-21 involving different amounts of money against three complainants by advertising on Facebook, vehicles for sale. The complainants made deposits but received nothing.

In May 2021, Police obtained the defendant's financial records and found that she had not created any accounts for the various deposits received nor had she ordered any vehicles.

The Lord Chief Justice said, there were unusual circumstances in this case, namely, the level of premeditation and contrivance, and the fact that the offending was not just a single event but was orchestrated over a period of at least 15-months in respect of three separate victims.

"For those reasons, I consider that imprisonment is necessary."

In addition, the overall amounts of money were larger.

"Those amounts were bilked from three separate victims who were unrelated to the defendant. I am also satisfied that the defendant's scheme (or scam) meant that she never intended nor put in place any ability to ever order the vehicles for which the unwitting victims handed over deposits. 

In my view, this type of planned financial criminal enterprise ought be met with condign punishment not only to reflect the community's denunciation of such behaviour and to protect the community but also to deter offenders and others who might be tempted to engage in cheating others in this way."

Failure to comply with any of those conditions may result in the suspension being rescinded, in which case, the defendant will be required to serve the balance of her prison sentence, said the Lord Chief Justice.

The defendant who also went by Nia Latu and Seini Koionia Latu was re-sentenced on the offences regarding her sister, after a mis-apprehension of relevant facts regarding her criminal history.