A chartered accountant on a six-figure salary who manipulated his company payroll to give himself a $10,000 pay rise has been sentenced to 200 hours of community work.
Mark Joseph Benjamin, 45, was earlier this month convicted of seven fraud charges after a trial before Judge David Wilson in Auckland District Court.
A former director of state science company HortResearch - now part of Plant and Food Research - Benjamin was hired in 2006 as chief financial officer for bulk food importer Kerry NZ Ltd.
After asking for $180,000 he accepted a salary of $165,000, but a few months later gave himself a pay rise to $175,000 covering his tracks by tampering with the computer payroll system, so that it would only show the $165,000 salary to which he was entitled.
The fraud was not discovered for nearly two years.
