HALAIA KAU NGAUE PANGIKE WESTPAC KAIHAASI $70,000 TUPU Thursday, March 20, 2014 - 08:49 Nukualofa, Tonga Four former Westpac Bank of Tonga tellers will be sentenced on April 4 after three were found guilty this week of embezzling over $70,000 paanga on separate occasions. Another accused teller had earlier pleaded guilty to similar counts. Mo‘ui Loketi, Fifita ‘Uluheua Latu and Sione Matafahi stood trial from February 24 to March 11 this year after pleading not guilty to two charges each of embezzlement (or alternatively theft) and falsification of accounts. They were found guilty and convicted on all counts by Mr. Justice Charles Cato at the Nukualofa Supreme Court on Tuesday, March 18. Meanwhile, the other accused Tavake Kaufusi after the prosecutions case ended pleaded guilty to an amended count of embezzlement and false accounting, alleging a slightly lower amount than he first faced. Mr. Justice Cato in his verdict said the charges arose out of allegedly false entries that had been made in foreign teller logs recording foreign exchange transactions with Westpac bank. He said as a consequence of these false entries it was alleged in each case that the accused who were foreign exchange tellers had embezzled moneys either to their own accounts or that of another or alternatively had stolen such an amount. Much of the evidence involved documentary exhibits and evidence by the bank auditor Sioeli Nuuhiva during the trial. Embezzlement Loketi was convicted on embezzlement, after amendment at the conclusion of the Crowns case, of $12,303.75. She was found guilty of false accounting that involved 33 separate transactions between July 2, 2009 to 24, August 2011. Matafahi was convicted of embezzling $30,419.12 from from April 7, 2010 and August 3, 2011. He was convicted of altering or falsifying the banks teller books in 23 different transactions. Latu was convicted of embezzling $30,917.60 from February 15, 2011 to January 20, 2012 in all 19 transactions with sizeable deficits ranging as high as $4127 in one case. She was also found guilty of false accounting. Guilty The judge said after considering the circumstances of each accused separately he found it beyond reasonable doubt was embezzlement, and at material times each accused was an employee of Westpac Bank, and on each transaction the amounts alleged to have been converted were received by them on behalf of the bank. He was satisfied with the evidence provided by Mr Nu‘uhiva as he was part of the operational risk department and the auditor. The material issue in dispute in each case was whether they fraudulently converted that money to their own use or the use of others. “I record at the outset in relation to each accused separately that they had converted the money for their own use beyond reasonable doubt and there was no need for me to consider the alternative count of theft,” he said. He also found beyond reasonable doubt the fraudulent conversion charges that each accused in falsifying log entries concerning the amount of Tongan equivalent of the foreign currency received were guilty of the offence of falsification of accounts with the intent to defraud and had wilfully falsified the logs. The accused will be sentenced on April 4 at the Supreme Court.
Posted on: Thu, 20 Mar 2014 02:05:14 +0000
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