A Northland man in a "state of shame" for stealing money to support his "lavish lifestyle" has been sentenced in the High Court in Auckland.
Stephen Henare will serve five years and two months in prison for the theft of $1 million from a Māori land trust account that was designating money to help underprivileged people.
Henare's offending was labeled a sophisticated strategy to steal the money in more than 100 transactions over the course of 12 months.
The 61-year-old was the trustee of the Parengarenga 3G Trust (PG3) when he transferred large sums of money in to his personal account, his sister's account and family trusts, using a portion of the money to support a gambling addiction.
The trust manages a 512 hectare commercial forest on Māori land in the Tai Tokerau district. Profits made from harvesting would have gone back into the community.
The theft was only discovered when the bank account ran out of money. Ahjun Ahoy, a spokesperson for PG3, says they've been "left on the edge of a cliff" from the impact of discovering there was just $13 dollars left in the trust's bank account.
"We want closure, because that's all we can get from this,"said Ahoy in his victim impact statement.
Henare earlier denied the charges, but entered a guilty plea on the fourth day of his High Court trial, admitting to five counts of theft by a person in a special relationship and one count of attempting to pervert the course of justice.
His sister Maragret Dixon plead guilty and has already been sentenced to 12 months home detention and ordered to pay $5000 in reparation for her role.
Newshub.
