A chartered accountant on a six-figure salary who manipulated his company payroll to give himself a $10,000 pay rise has been named as Mark Joseph Benjamin, 45.
He was convicted of seven fraud charges after trial before Judge David Wilson QC in Auckland District Court and name suppression was lifted last Friday, but Benjamin appealed to the High Court to retain the suppression.
That appeal was dismissed this morning, and Benjamin will be sentenced on December 21.
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 payrise to $175,000.
He tampered 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.
The company denied his claim that the $10,000 pay rise was verbally authorised.
His lawyer Mark Edgar said his actions were a mistake. Benjamin was trialling the payroll system but forgot to correct the record.
