Three
years and ten months imprisonment for Joanne Christine McGregor following
thefts of $472,900 from clients of Perpetual Trust was confirmed by the Court
of Appeal as not being manifestly excessive.
The court was told McGregor misused her
position at Perpetual Trust managing estates, trusts and personal affairs of
clients to start stealing client money from early 2008, some nine months after
starting employment with the Trust company.
She took money directly from client accounts, used client ATM cards to
withdraw cash and used friend’s names without their knowledge to generate false
invoices. In one instance she supposedly
purchased a car on behalf of a Perpetual client but registered the vehicle in her
own name. Evidence was given that the
stolen funds were used to buy a home, purchase two cars, pay for an overseas
trip and make payments to a family trust.
McGregor pleaded guilty. In the Court of Appeal she said the jail term
was excessive. She said her mental
health should have been taken into account.
There was evidence McGregor suffered from mild post-traumatic stress
following the February 2011 Christchurch earthquake. She was working from Perpetual Trust offices
in the Pyne Gould Guiness building at the time of the earthquake, but was away at
lunch when the earthquake struck and the building collapsed. Many of her
friends and colleagues were killed. The
Court said her offending started years before the earthquake.
McGregor said the length of the sentence
failed to take into account her remorse.
The Court said no allowance could be made for remorse beyond the
reduction already given for her guilty plea.
She had been reluctant to fill in a statement of assets and liabilities
required before sentencing. She had
attempted to mislead the sentencing judge, said the Court, making little effort
to sell her house while telling the judge she was selling up to better pay
reparations for the money stolen. When
sentenced to jail, McGregor was ordered to pay $50,000 reparations.
Perpetual Trust made good all the money
stolen from client accounts.
McGregor
v. R – Court of Appeal (23.11.15)
16.010