Fraudster pleads guilty to SFO charges
An Auckland man who pinched more than a million dollars by redirecting company invoice payments has pleaded guilty to charges brought by the Serious Fraud Office.
An Auckland man who pinched more than a million dollars by redirecting company invoice payments has pleaded guilty to charges brought by the Serious Fraud Office.
Martyn Tewsley Scott, a 51 year-old from Meadowbank, Auckland, appeared today in the Auckland District Court and pleaded guilty to seven representative charges of accessing a computer for dishonest purpose, laid by the SFO in September.
Mr Scott fraudulently obtained more than $1.4m during the six-year period he was employed as the general manager of a family run security equipment supply business, National Fire and Security Limited.
SFO chief executive Adam Feeley said, “While the SFO is investigating and prosecuting cases involving hundreds of millions of dollars, we have not lost sight of the need to also hold smaller scale fraudsters to account for the losses they cause to the public.”
Mr Feeley said that the conviction was the seventh SFO conviction this financial year, with another 30 cases currently under prosecution.
Mr Scott manipulated the company’s computerised accounting system on more than 380 occasions to redirect invoice payments due to creditors to bank accounts under his control.
He varied the method to either divert payments due to genuine suppliers or create false supplier invoices to substantiate payments covertly paid to his bank account.
He used his position in the company and the access it afforded him to transfer $1,403,940.81 to his own bank accounts and pay personal invoices amounting to $6,243.90 through the NFS accounting system.
Mr Scott was remanded in custody to a sentencing date on 27 January 2011.
Mr Feeley said that not only was SFO taking on bigger cases, it was seeing more jail sentences being ordered by the courts.
“It is apparent that the scale of losses and impact on society through white collar crime is beginning to be increasingly recognised by the decisions of the courts in these cases.”
Mr Feeley said that the dollar value of SFO cases had risen dramatically in the past year with the losses to investors and victims in SFO cases under investigation now averaging about $35 million per case.
NBR staff
Thu, 21 Oct 2010
Thu, 21 Oct 2010
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Fraudster pleads guilty to SFO charges
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