A Southland accountant who forged a company cheque to get himself out of financial difficulties cannot be named for now.
The man, unemployed, pleaded guilty last month to one charge of fraudulently obtaining $19,486.25 from his former employer, an organisation which receives public funding.
Sentencing him in the Invercargill District Court yesterday, Judge David Saunders declined his application for permanent name suppression sought because of the distress publication would cause the man's wife.
He said while he understood her distress and anxiety, the conviction was her husband's wrongdoing, not hers, and the man ''could not hide behind a cloak of secrecy''.
The man's lawyer, Hugo Young, of Invercargill, said he would file an appeal and applied for interim name suppression in the meantime. That was granted.
The man was sentenced to three months' community detention and ordered to do 120 hours of community work.
He had paid the total amount stolen into Mr Young's trust account and Judge Saunders ordered that to be paid to his former employer.
He was also ordered to repay at $200 a fortnight the $14,666 it cost the organisation to have its accounts audited.
The cheque, on which the man forged the signatures of two of the organisation's senior staff members, was written out in November, 2011. Judge Saunders noted the man had not been charged with forgery.
Mr Young said his client was a ''very ordinary New Zealander who led a very ordinary life''. He had never appeared before the court before.
Redundancy led him to a job which was less well paid than previously, and he began to experience financial problems. He ran up credit card debts which he hid from his wife, and took the money to help meet family bills.
