Faking a ski pass was a serious offence and two foreign former employees of NZSki Ltd were told they had "really messed things up for themselves" in New Zealand by Judge Dominic Flatley, when they appeared in Queenstown District Court yesterday.
English national Ben Pyle (19), unemployed, was ordered to pay $2693 in reparation, $132.89 in court costs and fined $1000.
He was convicted of altering a document with intent to defraud, which which has a penalty of 10 years' imprisonment.
Pyle will be convicted and discharged on the charge of taking/obtaining/using a document for pecuniary advantage, following confirmation of his departure from Immigration New Zealand.
Pyle worked on the guest service desk at Coronet Peak, which involved selling ski passes to customers.
The defendant received three non-transferable season ski passes, valued at $1299 each, between July 15 and August 19 from friends who were leaving New Zealand.
Pyle changed a pass photo so another friend could use it and altered the photo of the second pass to sell it for $250 to another friend to use it for three weeks before he left New Zealand.
Pyle sold the third pass to another friend, who used it for the next six weeks before leaving the country.
Pyle contacted Kelly Josiah Williams (18), an Australian national, who also worked on the guest service desk, and asked if he could get a cheap day ski pass for September 30.
Williams created a fake day ski pass by creating a new identity for his friend and printing the pass so that it did not create a charge to the till system.
Pyle used the fake pass on October 2, causing a loss of $95 to NZSki.
The judge accepted Pyle's apology, but said his behaviour would not be tolerated.
The court heard Williams had apologised to the skifield company and was due to return to Australia on October 12.
Pyle had made arrangements to return to the United Kingdom on October 7.
The judge said William's explanation for the offence provided no excuses.
"This is appalling behaviour on your part.
"You were here working from your home country. It's a privilege.
"The ski industry is important to our tourism industry and here you are ...
"We don't want you."
Williams was fined $800, ordered to pay $95 reparation and court costs of $289.
