A former Miss Heilala charged with embezzlement of $179,782 from her employer and theft of airline tickets worth nearly a quarter of a million pa'anga, maintained her not guilty plea yesterday, while a co-accused changed his plea and pleaded guilty to embezzlement, at the start of a jury trial.

The two accused former travel consultants Tafolosa Bloomfield and Fangatua Fakava, who worked at the Forum Travel Ltd. office in Nuku’alofa, appeared at the Supreme Court on August 6.

Fakava on Tuesday morning pleaded not guilty to two counts of embezzlement and theft, but later in the day changed his plea to guilty on the embezzlement charge in which he fraudulently converted $88,051 from September 2009 to March 2010.

The Crown then agreed to withdraw another count of theft of airline tickets worth the same amount. Fakava is set to be sentenced on September 6 and his bail was extended until then.

Not guilty plea

Meanwhile, his co-accused Tafolosa Bloomfield maintained her not guilty plea and was proceeding with the jury trial today, August 7.

She is similarly charged with embezzlement and accused of fraudulently converting a total of $179,782 from September 2009 to March 2010. On the second count of theft she is accused of taking airline tickets worth $246,166 belonging to the Forum Travel over the same period.

The Crown, represented by the Solicitor General ‘Aminiasi Kefu and co-counsel Sione Sisifa, is expected to call six witnesses during a two-weeks trial. Bloomfield was represented by Mana Kaufusi and Fatai Vaihu acted for Fakava.

The seven-member jury, selected on August 5 is presided over by Mr Justice Charles Cato.

Forum Travel Ltd is the sales agent for Air New Zealand in Tonga.

Bloomfield, who now works for the Siangana Travel in Nuku‘alofa, is the current Secretary General of the Tonga Tourist Association. She is a former Miss Heilala of Tonga.