A Dunedin businesswoman who gambled away more than $200,000 meant for the IRD has been stripped of her licence.
The woman, whose name, occupation and address are suppressed, was sentenced to five months’ community detention and 200 hours’ community work when she appeared before the Dunedin District Court in September last year.
She had been the sole director and shareholder of a business which failed to pay PAYE, KiwiSaver deductions and employer contributions, and GST between July 2013 and September 2015 — defrauding IRD to the tune of $233,866.
Her counsel, Colin Withnall QC, told the High Court at a recent appeal his client had splurged $280,000 in online gambling.
Because of the suppression order covering the case, neither her previous venture nor her subsequent occupation can be revealed.
Now, more than 14 months since her sentencing, she has lost the ability to practise in her chosen field.
After sentencing, the defendant began a new job in a field in which she had previously worked. But shortly afterwards its governing body rejected the renewal of her licence.
She challenged that decision and a hearing took place before a tribunal in March, resulting in her reinstatement.
It ruled she was a "fit and proper" person to continue in the job.
However, the High Court, in a decision released this week, overturned the decision.
"The references provided ... by people who had used and valued the service which she had provided shows that she could be successful [in her job]," Justice Gerald Nation said.
"Balanced against that, however, was her recent involvement in serious offences of dishonesty. On all the evidence that was before it, I consider the tribunal was wrong to conclude that she had established that she was a fit and proper person to be licensed as a ... person, able to uphold the standards required of her."
The woman called the plan to set up the doomed company "probably the worst decision I could have made".
The business struggled. She was under considerable stress and things got on top of her. She became depressed and turned to gambling. She became addicted and lost her sense of values, the court was told. But Justice Nation noted that nowhere in her correspondence did she expressly acknowledge her dishonesty.
"She said she had been stupid in putting the employees ahead of everything else with her business when she should have just shut the business but, as pointed out through cross-examination, she had not put the employees first when she had failed to make their KiwiSaver contributions," he said.